A Charmed Story 4: Marriage with Obstacles
by crazyDFFgang
Summary: An old prophecy is going to spoil Chris’s and Bianca’s great day. Will they finally say the most important words in their lives? !COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

(Note: Please have a look on our profile!)

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A Charmed Story - Part Four:  
Marriage with Obstacles  
Chapter 1**

Piper was in the kitchen, preparing the meal for that day; which was really difficult, 'cause Chris was pacing around there nervously.  
"Honey, you're stressing me, and that means you're also stressing your little self, so... could you please stop this?" she asked.  
"He should have been here since half an hour ago," Chris remarked.  
"Well there might be heavy traffic..."  
Chris nodded: "It's just... I..."  
Piper smiled at him: "I know, honey, I understand you. I remember how it was for me when I was..."  
The bell of the front door interrupted her. Chris looked up, smiled, and ran out of the kitchen.  
"Chris, sweetie, please be..." but it was too late.  
Her son was already at the door. He opened it and looked into the eyes of a man with grey hair but with a still-young-looking face... for his age.  
"Grandpa!" Chris exclaimed, smiling happily. He hugged the man, who seemed to be a little scared and unsure about what to do.  
"Dad, hello!" Piper called form inside. She had already gone into the hall. "Chris, stop scaring him, or he will get a heartattack before the great day!"  
Chris looked at his mother, then at his grandfather, then back to her: "You didn't tell him?"  
"Tell me what?" Victor asked with a sigh. He was used to the fact that his daughters were always surprising him, but that seemed to be a little too much... He didn't understand what was going on.  
"Come in, Dad," Piper said with a smile. So he did. Together they went into the living room, where Victor sat down on the sofa.  
"I can't believe that you didn't..." But Piper stopped Chris with a movement of her hand, and even more with her angry look.  
Victor raised his eyebrows: "I'm listening."  
His daughter sighed. She was thinking about how to start. So... she began with a little introduction: "Dad, this is Chris."  
"Oh, your new whitelighter?"  
"Em... yes," Piper nodded.  
"Not exactly," Chris added. Then he turned to his mother: "Why didn't you tell him all this before?"  
"Because I don't like discussing something like that on the phone..." his mother answered trying to stay calm.  
"What?" Victor asked.  
"Well, I'm pregnant," Piper went on.  
"Yeah, I noticed..." he replied a little confused, looking at her womb. She had been pregnant for five month now, so you could already see it a little. "Well... That's fantastic... But I thought you and..."  
"Oh... we are together, again..." she said smiling. "But the problem is... that..."  
"Look," Chris broke in impatient, "I came from the future, to save Wyatt. And I did it... But I changed too much, so I was separated from my own time, and now I'm stuck here and..."  
"Chris, stop it," Piper yelled.  
"But..."  
"STOP IT!"  
He sighed: "Yes mom."  
All the time Victor had been listening to the conversation of his daughter and her whitelighter in confusion, but now he was shocked: "WHAT?"  
Now Piper sighed. "He is Wyatt's little brother, your grandson," she explained, or better, tried to. Victor was looking at them with his mouth wide open. Piper pointed on her belly: "He is this child, dad, he..."  
"Look grandpa, I lived a whole life before I came back to the past to save my little brother," Chris helped her to explain it.  
"And now you... are... here... forever?... And this one," he pointed at the belly of his daughter, "will be here, too?" Piper and Chris just nodded. Victor sighed: "And that's why you asked me to come here?"  
"Well..." Piper looked at her son who looked at her too.  
"Not exactly," Chris said then to him.  
"That means..." Victor asked a little afraid and still confused.  
"You're here because I'm going to get married tomorrow! And we want you to take over the part of the father of the bride." Chris said with a smile.  
Victor was just looking at him, trying to understand all that, which he wasn't able to... at that moment. He felt his mind was spinning around...  
Meanwhile Cole went down the stairs. He was just with Phoebe and Bianca, who were trying on their dresses. "Chris? Where are you? Man, you will be getting crazy tomorrow when you see how beautiful..."  
He stopped in the doorway.  
Victor jumped up from the sofa. "What the hell is HE doing here?" he asked scared.  
Cole smirked, amused: "Good morning, Victor!" He approached the scared man stretching his arm to shake hands with him: "It's been a long time!"  
Victor retired his hand and stepped backwards, really spooked by the sight of the ex-demon. At the sight of which, Cole himself retired his hand, feigning his shame and disappointment: "Oh... A reaaally long time... It seems you don't remember me, do you?"  
Victor turned to look at his daughter and his newly-found grandson, who was actually hiding his mouth behind his hand, trying not to laugh.  
"What? Of course I remember you! I thought you were...! Well, they... You're a demon, for God's sake! What are you doing here... alive?" He stepped backwards again as Cole took a step in his direction, and looked at his daughter in search for some kind of explanation.  
But Cole didn't let her talk. Instead, he went on, in a fake hurt tone: "Oh... I thought you liked me... You know, for your daughter... How am I going to marry her if my future dad-in-law hates me and insults me by calling me... demon! That's too much, dad..."  
Chris chuckled at the sight of his grandpa's shocked stare.  
"Ok, man! You're veeeery funny, really," Piper intervened, taking Victor by his arm and leading him to the sofa. "Dad, you'd better sit down, and listen to me, and only ME, carefully, because there's much to talk about, and these two men here think it's amusing to have fun on a poor old man."  
"Hey!" he complained. "I'm not that old..." He was saying this when Cole sat heavily by his side, grinning widely, and Victor jumped to his other side as quickly as he could.  
Chris laughed as he sat down on a chair in front of the three people on the sofa, and Cole winked at him.  
"Well, that's enough! You two are grounded until I decide the contrary!"  
"But mom! I get married tomorrow!" exclaimed Chris, amused, but a little bit worried about his mother's countenance. Maybe they had taken the joke too far... Grandpa was so pale!  
"Yeah, well, then you get married and come back home." Cole laughed.  
"Piper, sweetie... please," Victor begged.  
Piper gave him a glass of water and said: "Look, daddy, it's been a long time, Cole is right. And you've missed so many things, that I thought I should tell you them all, face to face! This Cole you see here now has come from death, thanks to your grandson here too... But he's come back alone... I mean, he's now human."  
"Completely."  
"Totally." Both men corroborated at the same time, gesturing with their arms and nodding, in order to make sure it was clear.  
"But... how?" Victor seemed more relieved, but he was pressed against his daughter, with a huge space between him and Cole, and looked at the latter out of the corner of his eyes.  
"Well, that's also a loooong story. But for now, I'll give you the short version," she went on, "He came back trying to save Chris, Phoebe forgave him - well, all of us did, actually - and he's now living here with us. He was allowed to stay but without powers at all."  
"Sure?" asked Victor, staring at the ex-demon.  
"Sure," said Chris and Cole again, at the same time.  
"Belthazor is gone. Literally," explained Cole.  
"Literally? so he's dead... The red half of yours? Did the Elders do some kind of spell, or something?"  
Cole chuckled: "No... literally means 'literally'. Belthazor is gone. We're separated now."  
"Yeah... he, Belthazor, his red half, lives somewhere down there in the Underworld, and he's the new source of all evil... but you know, that's another story..." Chris added.  
Piper glared at him and her eyes said: 'Shut up now!' So he did.  
"Oh..." Victor nodded, nervously, "I understand..." He looked at them one after another, and then he reached the glass of water and drank everything in a single gulp. Then he stared at Cole again, a bit tense.  
The man smiled at him kindly and stretched his hand towards him: "So... are we friends now?"  
Victor nodded slowly, in a pensive attitude. Then he shook his hand, shivering, and said:  
"I... I guess so."  
Piper and Chris smiled at the sight, glad that Victor had taken everything so easily... Easily, taking into account that any other non-magical human being would have probably died because of the shock. At that very moment, two figures shimmered in front of them.  
"Daddy!"  
It was Phoebe, who ran towards Victor's arms and hugged him so tightly that she almost strangled him. "Hey, I see you have made peace with my ex-husband, and husband-to-be-again-soon-in-the-future-I-hope!"  
Victor smiled at her, but once he got free from her embrace, he looked even paler.  
He was looking at Chris and the woman in black sitting on his knees, and kissing him lovingly.  
"Sweetie..." Victor said with a trembling voice, "Have you just... done that thing demons do instead of orbing?"  
"Oh... yeah... You haven't told him, have you?" Phoebe asked looking questioningly at Piper, Cole and Chris, the same as Bianca did.  
Piper rolled her eyes: "Actually, we were on it..."  
"What... well, wait... Just tell me if there's something else I should know, please, before I faint," Victor said.  
"I think I'm gonna bring another glass of water for dad," Cole stated as he stood up and walked to the kitchen.  
Bianca frowned, worried: "Did I do something wrong, honey?" she asked in a concerned tone, staring at Victor.  
"No... Ok. Grandpa... Phoebe doesn't shimmer, that's how we call it. Bianca did it. She's my fiancée." Then he turned to Bianca, and smiling: "And this is my Grandpa... well, you know that. But since he doesn't know you yet, well..."  
Bianca grinned, stood up and walked to Victor, who was too scared to stand up, too: "Yeah, grandpa, I know you, but anyway... I'm really glad to see you again! You were always so kind to us, that I had to ask Chris if you'd like to be play the father of the bride tomorrow... If you agree... because my father... well, let's not talk about him."  
Piper smiled: "Easy, easy... I think he's a bit lost now..." Phoebe hugged him again.  
"So..." Victor said, "I knew you... and you are... what kind of magical creature? Don't tell me you're a demon, please..." Then he saw her hurt countenance. "Sorry, I mean... a bad demon. I guess you might be a good demon, if such a thing exists," he mumbled.  
Chris took Bianca's arm, and pressed it gently: "He's just confused, sweetie. He'll understand everything soon. You know how understanding and kind and cool he was." Bianca smiled.  
"Yeah, dad..." Cole intervened, entering again with the glass of water that Victor took from his hands reluctantly. "You take your time. We the ex-evil demons here understand how you feel. Don't worry about that."  
At that moment a jingling sound came from up there, making Chris look upwards: "They're calling me..."  
"The Elders?" Victor asked, immediately. "Why should they be calling my grandson from the future? You're not a whitelighter are you?" Everyone in the room chuckled.  
"Well, actually, I'm an Elder now, as well as dad." Then he saw Victor's face. "No, I'm not dead... I'm ok... Well, really fine! Anyway, it's not the Elders. It's the magic school..."  
Then he added, turning to Bianca: "Guess what, even in our free day before our wedding, they keep calling me... I'll be right back, ok? Promise." Then he kissed her sweetly. "Just try your dress on again, before I'm back, because Cole says you're soooo beautiful that I won't be able to stay out here without peeping from behind the door."  
He winked, and orbed away before the shocked look of Victor, and the amused smile of the rest.

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris orbed to his office at the school, where Paige was waiting for him.  
"What's wrong?" he asked.  
"Nothing to worry about," she smiled.  
"So why did you call me?"  
Paige sighed: "Because Freddy from the 7th grade has made the lab explode for the third time this month, and..."  
Chris sighed and ended her sentence: "...and I told you the last time that if that happenned again, you should send him to me..."  
Paige nodded.  
Chris sighed again: "So send him in."

°°°°°°°°°°

A few minutes later Victor sat in the kitchen while Piper went on preparing the meal. Meanwhile, they went on talking.  
"So Chris came back to save Wyatt from turning evil, and then he separated himself from his own time?" Victor asked still confused.  
"Yeah, himself and Bianca," she nodded, "they saved Wyatt and that's why they have to stay here."  
Victor sighed: "And Cole...?"  
"Cole is just a human, no need to be afraid of him," Leo said.  
Victor turned around surprised. The Elder had just orbed in. Then they hugged.  
"Good to see you," Leo said.  
Victor smiled: "Yeah, it's good that you're back here."  
The Elder nodded." Have they informed you?" he asked then.  
"Half way," Piper replied with a smile.  
"Yeah right, there is something else I want to ask..." Victor went on, "why is Chris an Elder? I thought... only dead people..."  
"Well...," Leo sighed, "actually we're not sure about that. Piper and her sisters cast a spell on him which should have made him a complete whitelighter to be able to save me. But... we forgot the part that he already had changed his past, and that he wasn't a half-whitelighter anymore, he was a half-Elder."  
"And even if that's impossible, it happened; he is now one of them, but he's still alive and he has still his witch-powers." Piper added.  
"And his fiancée is...? Well...I hope I didn't offend her before."  
"No, I don't think you did...And she is a Phoenix," Piper said.  
Victor rose his eyebrows: "Is that good or bad?"  
"Well..." Piper started, but then she was interrupted again by some blue orbing lights as Chris returned.  
"Hey dad," he said, as he noticed his father was there, too.  
Leo hugged his son: "Hey, are you nervous about tomorrow."  
"Ahhh... A little..." Chris smiled embarrassed.  
Victor looked at the boy still amazed. Then he smiled at him: "So you make me feel really old, you know that?"  
Chris smiled: "Well... no... But I know who will do that..."  
"Who?" his grandfather asked frowning.  
Piper turned around trying to say something to stop Chris, but...  
"Well your grand-grandchild," Chris answered smiling and a little proud.  
... it was to late.  
Victor looked at him shocked; very slowly, that last information sank into his mind.  
"Chris!" Piper yelled.  
"What?" Chris asked. Then he looked at his grandfather's surprised eyes, while Leo smiled.  
Chris turned to his mother again: "I thought you've already told him that!"  
Piper was about to answer something, when they heard a noise, a kind of breaking wood, from the hallway.  
Leo and Chris went out to see what was going on. On the ground lay a deadly wounded demon.  
"What...?" Chris asked surprised.  
Leo went a little closer. "They want him... they want him..." the demon repeated. Then he ended up in flames.  
Leo looked to his son while Chris shook his head. "Oh no... not this weekend!" he mumbled.  
Both men kept looking at the floor, where remained only a pile of ashes.  
"Oh, my God..."  
All of a sudden, Chris and Leo turned to see who had pronounced those words, only to find Victor grasping the frames of the kitchen door, and his legs trembling.  
Piper was behind him; she had taken a cloth and was drying her hands with it.  
Chris swallowed, unable to utter a word, and Leo patted his shoulder, also silent.

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(Chapter 1 written by Chrissy.W.x and Belén)_


	2. Chapter 2

**A Charmed Story - Part Four:  
Marriage with Obstacles  
Chapter 2**

Fifteen minutes later, the whole family was gathered in the attic. Chris was pacing from one corner to the other, stepping heavily and nervously on the floor. Leo had sat down, pensive and worried, as he saw how Paige tried to comfort Bianca, and Phoebe was calming Victor down, making him drink a lot of water.  
Meanwhile, Piper was taking a look at the book of shadows, and Cole, as always, was playing with little Wyatt, who had woken up with all the noise and stress generated around him.  
"Chris, please... Just relax. This might be a simple hitch, nothing to worry about o.k.?" Piper said while she flipped through the pages of the book, in search for something.  
"No... nothing to worry about..." he exclaimed sarcastically, "we've spent some really quiet weeks, and now, that there's only ONE day left for my wedding, suddenly, problems come back!" He kicked one of Wyatt's toys, which were on the floor, and the boy started to cry, scared.  
"You're not helping, man," Cole said, looking at him with a grave expression on his face. "You're only losing time. Just relax. We always find a way, remember? We'll do this time too."  
"Of course..." Chris mumbled, sitting on the floor, frustrated. Those words had been Wyatt's when they were trapped in that cave, running out of oxygen. He felt now that he lacked oxygen, actually. He felt a bit sick for a moment...  
Leo realised, and went to him quickly: "Are you fine?" He held him upright, so that he didn't fall down.  
"Chris!" Bianca said, standing up very distressed.  
Paige grabbed her arm gently: "He's ok, it's just the stress. He needs to calm down, that's all."  
"Yeah, I'm fine." Chris answered, with a trembling voice. Piper had left the book and was also stroking his hair. Wyatt was still crying, and Cole trying to make him laugh.  
Meanwhile, Victor just stared in silent, grateful that Phoebe was hugging him. He had seen the demon... He had seen it disappear in the middle of a bunch of flames. He hated demons so much!  
Chris leaned his head on Piper's shoulder: "Why is this always so hard, mom? Why is there always something that ruins my life?"  
"Hey, sweetie, don't worry. I promise you'll be married tomorrow. Now, please... focus. What was the demon like?" she asked to both men.  
Leo shrugged: "We've told you. He wasn't very different from a simple human being... He was just a tall man, red-streaked dark hair... He disappeared too quickly!" Chris nodded. He felt really helpless.  
Phoebe looked for Cole's and Bianca's eyes. "Hey, you don't have any idea of which demon this could be?" she asked.  
"A very ugly one..." mumbled Victor, as the two alluded ones shook their heads.  
Paige had to laugh at that: "Man, you haven't seen many demons... According to those characteristics, he could be 'Mister Underworld'."  
Cole raised an eyebrow, so Paige went on, rectifying: "Well, that's since our old friend the source Cole left his kingdom."  
Bianca and Chris chuckled, a bit more cheered up. Even Victor laughed. By that moment, Wyatt had stopped crying and was about to fall asleep, so Cole decided to go out with him.  
"Ok... getting back on topic," Piper intervened, going to the book again, "Some mark some signal, some... something?"  
The two men shook their heads. "Nothing." They said all at once. Piper sighed.  
"He only said 'they want him'." Leo repeated for the zillionth time.  
"Great." Piper closed the book with a strong thud, making Victor startle, and sat down by Phoebe's side. "'They want him'. So we only need to guess who is 'they' and who is 'him'."  
Phoebe jumped up scared of her own idea: "Wyatt? What if they want Wyatt again?"  
Piper raised an eyebrow: "I don't think that a demon would come here to tell us that other demons want Wyatt..."  
"Well, that's the funny thing..." Bianca said, who was very pale, and had been pensive all the time. "What kind of demon would have come to tell us that someone wants any of you? They'd be really glad that any of the Charmed Ones died, or any of their children... No... the 'him' has to be someone they're interested in keeping alive... Someone who serves their interests, that's to say, someone with evil blood?"  
Chris and Paige turned to her suddenly: "You don't mean..." Paige said, as Chris looked at her womb, terrified.  
Leo shook his head this time: "They said 'him', we don't know if it's a he or a she, and what is more... technically they'd be after Bianca, not after the baby itself... They would have said 'her', not 'him'."  
"Besides, and most important," Piper added, frowning, "That child doesn't have any evil blood at all, girl. Forget it."  
Phoebe separated herself from his father, little by little...  
"Then... who's left?"  
"Why has it to be someone from the family?" Victor asked, suddenly. "Maybe those demons are trying to get your help because they know you're the only ones that can help them?"  
"Yeah... but I don't know... He said those words as if the 'him' was someone we cared of, or something. I don't know..." Chris rubbed his temples, feeling a growing headache: "This is so frustrating!"  
All the people in the attic kept silent, pensive, trying to get some clue or some good idea about what was happening. But they were completely lost.  
"O.k.," Bianca said then, "I don't want to give up all my plans for tomorrow, so... as long as nobody knows what to do with that little information, I'll go to my room with Phoebe... there is still some work about the dresses." She smiled at Chris who couldn't help smiling back.  
Paige sighed: "Yeah and I need to go back to the school." Then she orbed away.  
"Dinner in half an hour!" Piper yelled, not sure if her sister had got this.  
One by one left the attic, only Chris wasn't able to relax. Again, he went over the book of shadows and flipped through the pages. He did it without touching them.  
Victor was also still up there. He wanted to leave, too, but then he turned around. Now he stood in the doorway and looked at his grandson. 'Unbelievable,' he thought, 'I have a grandson... and he's... old...' Victor smiled, slowly realising all that. Then, another thought came to his mind. "How is it, to be kicked out of your own time?" he asked.  
Chris raised his head. He hadn't noticed that his grandfather was still there. "What do you mean?" he asked back.  
Victor went a little closer again: "I mean... You can never go back to the world you lived in, to your family there, to your friends..."  
"Believe me, there was nothing like that in MY time..." Chris answered a little irritated.  
Victor watched him for a moment; then he sighed: "Sorry, I... I just..."  
"Never mind," Chris answered.  
Victor smiled: "I really didn't want to..."  
"Forget it," Chris sighed, "and... I was a little wrong... there was something good..." He made a short break, taking a deep breath. Then he went on: "There was you..."  
His grandfather smiled. He was something good for him... Hell, he had never been a good father so how could he be a good grandfather?  
"...and Patricia of course," Chris added.  
"Patricia?" Victor asked thinking of his ex-wife.  
"Aunt Phoebe's daughter," he explained with a sad smile.  
Victor noticed that: "You miss her, right?"  
"No, not really," Chris replied, "she is in a better world now, she is a different person... the version of her that I left, is gone... So I'm happy for her, that she didn't have to live with all those horrible memories as I do."  
Victor smiled weakly. He still didn't understand what his grandson was talking about, that was all... a little too much. But he understood that he had lived a very hard life. "I'm sorry, that your life was so..."  
"No!" Chris exclaimed, "you're the last one who has to feel sorry... and anyway, I'm here now. And I'm happy! I'm going to marry the girl that I have loved since I was 14! And man, she's pregnant... I'll be a father on my own! So why should I wish to change one single thing of MY past, when all that shit at the end leads to such wonderful things." Chris smiled and his eyes were sparkling. He was really happy, and everyone could see that.  
"You really love her, right? I mean... she is a..."  
Chris frowned, not knowing what his grandfather wanted to ask, but then he understood: "Well... you know... in MY time there was no good and evil... like here... There was only 'be on Wyatt's side', or 'be not'... There were demons and witches on both sides... and actually... actually she is a good one, so no need to worry, o.k.?"  
"Do you know what?" Victor replied after he had nodded, "You remind me of your grandmother. You have her eyes..."  
Chris smiled. Then he looked down for a moment. His grandpa had told him the same very often... in HIS time. And for a moment some of those memories came back and made him a little sad.  
"Are you o.k., son?" Victor asked.  
Chris nodded: "Yeah, it's just... I heard that a lot of times from you." Victor nodded too. And again he felt sorry, that he had reminded Chris of something.  
Then they heard Piper yelling from downstairs: "Dad? Chris? Come down, we want to eat!"  
Chris sighed a bit tiredly: "Would you mind to go without me and tell mom that I'll be working a little more here, please? "  
Victor stared at him, then nodded and walked out of the attic, but after having descended a couple of stairs, he turned again to look at his grandson, who was once again submerged in the book, flipping through the pages and completely concentrated on his task.  
Victor went back to him, shaking his head: "No son... You've already seen that there's nothing else you can do here. You're tired, so come down for dinner and relax, that's exactly what you need for tomorrow."  
Chris smiled weakly: "I don't want that anything spoils my wedding... It's too important for me..."  
"Well, you'll spoil it if you don't relax... Even if you're an adult, and an Elder, and a hero, which it seems you are..." Chris smirked sarcastically at his words. "You're still Piper's son, and my grandson, and even if that's difficult for me to understand, I know one single thing. You should listen to your elders' advice. Piper is down there, relaxed. I know her very well. If there's something to worry, she'll be the first to be there. So just, relax, man! Tomorrow is your day! And now, let's go to the dining room, and have dinner, all together, like a big weird family."  
Chris kept on smiling, and let Victor pull him to the door. But once he was there, Chris orbed them both with the rest.

°°°°°°°°°°

"Wow!" Victor exclaimed, stumbling once he got to set his feet on the floor. "Don't do that again, young man!" he cried. All the faces turned to look at the couple, and laughed, except Piper.  
"Chris, sweetie... Your grandpa hates orbing!"  
Chris chuckled: "Oh, don't worry about that... I guess he'll get used to this... in the future." He stared straight in his eyes.  
Victor rolled his eyes and staggered towards the table, mumbling in a very low voice: "That's if I get to the future..." Chris followed him and sat down between Bianca and Cole.  
Well, his grandpa was right... He had been afraid that something bad could happen precisely that day. It was family tradition, as far as he knew, since his own parents had had to sort out one problem after another to finally be able to marry... But they were alright... Or he wanted them to be... and this stuff of the demon was probably a mistake. The demon was deadly wounded and he might have shimmered to the wrong place!  
Everyone around him was laughing and talking, trying to forget that something at all had happened, so he decided to join them. Wyatt had already had lunch and was dozing in his playpen.  
Chris approached Cole and asked, naughtingly: "Hey, what did you do to my brother, to make him be sooo quiet? Did you put sleeping pills on his food?" Bianca and Phoebe, who were besides them, chuckled.  
"Yeah... you caught me, man." Cole sighed.  
But, by when they had all forgotten about everything, someone shimmered in the room, just in front of them all. They startled before they noticed who he was.  
"Tom!" exclaimed Paige, shocked. "Have you just shimmered in here?"  
Chris stood up immediately and ran towards the boy. "Is everything ok?" he asked nervously.  
Tom nodded: "I'm fine... I'm... learning to use my new-found powers." He smirked. "But I've come for other things..." He stretched out a note to Chris. "Maybe this is not very important, but I thought I should show it to you, anyway..."  
Chris took it and read it for himself. Then he turned pale. Victor and Cole frowned, and the others stared at him, expectantly.  
"What's wrong, son?" Leo asked, walking towards him. He took the note from his hands.  
_'They're after him. We can not talk... Someone has tried to warn them, but was seriously wounded. We need them, but it's too dangerous to give names, or to go straight there. So, we hope that you understand who this note is meant for. For them: Be on the gate made of gold as soon as you read this note.'  
_"Oh..." Leo looked a Chris's pale face, and then to the questioningly countenance of Tom.  
"So... I was right, the note is for you..." he said, "is there any problem?"  
Everyone had stopped eating by then. Cole and Piper approached the two men to read the note.  
"Did this just appear like that in your house?" Leo asked.  
Tom shook his head. "No, actually... someone brought it. He said 'be fast', and then disintegrated..."  
"Nothing really important..." Chris mumbled, staring at Piper and Victor, "great... just great!"  
Bianca jumped up and went over to him. She grasped his hands an looked him into the eyes: "Honey, don't do that to yourself... Please stop worrying..." She hugged him tightly.  
"Yeah," Victor said, "too much worrying will only let your hair turn grey sooner!"  
Chris smiled: "Yeah, you're right... but..."  
"No buts," Piper commanded, "first, we finish the meal, then you two go home to the school and relax for tomorrow. Paige, Phoebe, Leo and I... and Tom if he likes, will try to find out what this letter is about, alright?" Chris nodded.  
"And what about me?" Cole asked and then added: "No... wait... playing with Wyatt, right?" Phoebe grinned.  
"You can take care of our guest," Piper answered, looking over to her dad.  
Victor tried to smile but it looked more like a grimace. It was clear that he still had some problems to forget what Cole had done in the past.  
Cole sighed; then he mumbled: "Babysitting, as I said..."

°°°°°°°°°°

Later that evening the sisters were up in the attic. They examined the letter again. Tom was also there sitting on the sofa, with the book on his lap. He was trying to find the creature who had brought that letter to him.  
After a while he closed the book loudly. The sisters looked up. "Nothing," he said, and went over to them.  
"Yeah, with the letter it's the same," Phoebe sighed.  
Piper read the letter again: "They're after him. We can not talk... Someone has tried to warn them, but was seriously wounded..."  
"If it's true what Chris said, then the 'them' must be you... but who is the "him"? Tom asked.  
Paige sighed: "Well the only 'hims' here are Leo, Chris, Wyatt... Cole maybe... Don't think that they mean Victor..."  
Phoebe chuckled but then turned serious again: "Do you think the source had his hands on that?"  
Tom shook his head: "No, he has been calm all the time, he knows that we could vanquish him... I don't think that he's so stupid."  
"But who else could want any of us?"  
"Oh damn!... Why this weekend...? I really wanted my son to have a great day... And not such a mess as I had on my wedding day." Piper exclaimed all of a sudden. Then she sighed.  
"I'm sure he will have a great day," Phoebe tried to cheer her sister up.  
At the same time Leo returned from the council.  
"And?" Paige asked, "do they know that Golden Gate?"  
"No," Leo answered, "they have no idea..."  
"But I have one," Tom interrupted them frowning. The others looked at him waiting for an explanation.  
He hemmed; then he rose to speak: "In the letter they talked about a gate made of gold, right? But the whole letter is written like in a spy-movie, so maybe that is a kind of code..."  
"A code?" Piper asked.  
Tom nodded: "Yeah... A gate made of gold, none of us knows that, right? But a golden gate?"  
He looked at the others waiting for any reaction.  
And then Phoebe got it first. "The bridge," she said. Tom nodded.  
Piper frowned: "Could it be so easy?"

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris was looking at his love. They were at the magic school. They lay in the bed in their little 'apartment'. She was lying in his arms, looking to the ceiling.  
"A penny for you thoughts," he said.  
"What?" she turned her face to him.  
"What's up with you, sweetie?" he asked with a soft voice.  
"Nothing..."  
"You're not good at lying," he remarked.  
She smiled: "I just thought about our baby."  
"Is there something wrong?" Chris asked suddenly worried.  
"No," she answered still thoughtful, "I was just thinking what it will be able to do."  
"To do?"  
"Orbing or shimmering?... For example..."  
Chris smiled: "You really care about that, right? But... You know... I don't care about that Phoenix-Elder-witch-stuff... I know it's my child... and it's your child... so everything that this little kid can do will be wonderful! Because we are its parents, and we love it... right?"  
She smiled at him and nodded.  
Chris grinned; then he moved under their cover. Bianca began to laugh because he tickled her. Then he softly touched her womb and kissed it. "Right, little kid, you will be a wonderful kid, and we will love you so much... you will be the happiest kid in the world."  
Bianca smiled, he was so cute. Then he crawled back to her, facing her, kissing her...

°°°°°°°°°°

"Well..." Phoebe shrugged, "sometimes the easiest of the solutions is the most difficult one to find..."  
Leo nodded, agreeing with her. "Besides, it's the only choice we have, without enough clues. These... people, whoever they are, seem to be really desperate. They wouldn't make it difficult for us to get there. They're in a hurry..."  
Paige smirked: "Yeah, in hurry to get the Charmed Ones."  
Piper hesitated a little bit: "Paige is right, what if it's only a trap to get to us? We'd go straight to it. It's like biting the bait so easily..."  
Tom looked at Leo: "They're right, aren't they? This could be a trap... It has no sense, that it is demons that are looking for their help."  
Leo kept pensive. Then he said: "But what if it isn't?"  
"We should go," Phoebe insisted, "as soon as possible, to make sure that we finish with this stuff before tomorrow!"  
Paige agreed: "Ok... but maybe we should take precautions."  
"Like some potion?" Piper suggested.  
"Like 'I can go in your place, glamouring'," Leo asserted, determined to do it.  
"What? No way, Leo..."  
"Yes, honey," he kissed her adoringly, and smiled, "you're pregnant too, don't forget it. Besides, if they get the three Charmed Ones, we're done. It's better if one of them stays out of this... It's like when the President travels on his own, and the First Lady in a very different plane."  
"He's right," Tom nodded, receiving a terrible glare from Piper as a response.  
"Yeah, I agree, sweetie," Phoebe backed him.  
"So... let's do it!"  
"Hey!" Tom and Piper exclaimed as they saw how Paige grabbed Phoebe's hand and the three of them orbed away.  
"I'm not pregnant!" a very mad Tom yelled.  
"Great..." Piper mumbled, sitting down heavily.

°°°°°°°°°°

"So...?"  
"So..."  
The two men kept sitting on the sofa, each one in one end of it, silent and uncomfortable, with little Wyatt as a barrier, in the middle. Cole was making some music with his fingers on the wooden table, and from time to time, looked at Victor out of the corner of his eyes. Victor, meanwhile, observed him secretly, a bit wary, and tried to avoid his look, but when Cole caught him, he just smiled, embarrassed. After a while, he started to whistle.  
Cole then tried to start a conversation: "So...?"  
"So..."  
"Unce Co" giggled Wyatt.  
Cole smiled and took him on his arms, before the worried look of Victor.  
"Yeah, little warrior? Are you bored? Huh?" he started to tickle him, making the child laugh out loud. "Do you wanna play, huh?"  
Victor smiled, softened: "He likes you..."  
"It seems so," the ex-demon answered, still playing with Wyatt. "He's forced to, the others don't let us play with them, so we have to play on our own..."  
Victor chuckled. "He's a cute boy..." he continued, feeling more at ease, little by little.  
"Yeah, and very clever, with all those riddles he invented and all. And really protective and..."  
"Wow! Wait! I get the protective part, I know about his... field, since he was in Piper's womb, but... He invents riddles?" Now he was shocked.  
"Oh, no, no..." Cole turned to look at him, amused, "I meant the adult one, the one from the future, you know..."  
"He also came?" Victor's eyes were wide open.  
"Yes, he actually paid us several visits!" Cole grinned, tickling Wyatt a little bit more, "didn't you, big man?" Then he turned to Victor again: "But I really prefer the second one. The first one was somehow... scary."  
"Oh, my God..." was the only thing Victor was able to utter.  
"Well, it's a long story, and..."  
"Yeah, yeah, don't worry. I know that. Got it..."  
Cole frowned: "No one told you about that?"  
"A bit... sort of... But not much, actually..."  
"Future consequences, I guess," Cole sighed.  
"So... Wyatt was able to go back home, and Chris wasn't?" Victor asked.  
The other man leant his head on the back of the sofa and frowned: "Well, Chris changed too much, it seems, and there was this thing about remembering the whole timeloop and so on... very complicated... Wyatt was somehow... different. We sent him back before really turning him, you know... So he was in the future when this happened. Chris was still here... Now the new Chris would have never come back, so technically, if he went back to his time, he'd disappear... There will be another Chris, you know, Piper is..."  
"Yeah, I know," Victor smiled, "It's o.k... I think I've got a headache now..."  
Cole smirked: "I had many, trying to understand all this. I saw Back to the Future, Timeline, Frequency, I read A Yankee in King Arthur's Court, the theories of Hawking... and I got lost with Einstein, and you know what? Rubbish. None of them has any idea of what this is like. I think not even Chris or the other Elders know. He just did it, was brave enough to do it... and accepted the consequences as they came. And that's it. I guess he had luck! Or he got a reward from destiny. He, and Bianca. They deserved it..."  
Victor nodded, pensive. "You've changed, Cole..." he said, finally.  
"No I haven't... I'm the one I always was... Only that I was too afraid to accept it."  
At that very moment, a very angry Piper and Tom came downstairs.  
"They went there on their own, and left us behind! I can't believe it! SHOOT!"  
"What's wrong, Piper?" Victor asked.  
"Nothing, dad... except that I had to stay at home... again."  
"And me, too," Tom added.  
"Boy, you should be happy that the sisters don't let you get in TOO much trouble," Cole remarked.  
Victor nodded: "Yeah, he's right..."  
"Oh, you're friends now," Piper replied and turned to the kitchen. "That's weird," she mumbled, while Tom followed her, "very weird."  
Cole sighed: "Oh, what a wonderful life."  
Victor smiled.  
"What?" Cole asked.  
"Nothing."  
"Oh, come on..."  
"No, really..." he answered smiling, "I just thought about the time when I was the one, who had to stay at home..."  
Now Cole smiled, too: "Frigging job!"  
Both man laughed.

°°°°°°°°°°

While Piper cleaned the kitchen, Tom helped her. "What about Chris and Bianca? Should we tell them..." he asked.  
"No," Piper said with a strict voice, "they don't need to worry, not today and not tomorrow... So, let them stay in the school... We can handle this alone..." She made a short break putting some plates in the locker. "Don't you think it would be better to go home? It's already late." she asked then turning around to him.  
Tom shook his head: "No, I want to stay... if I'm allowed... I want to help you."  
Piper smiled: "Still quarrels with your mom?"  
He looked at her. 'How could she know that?' he thought. But Piper herself was a mother. And in the last two months she had become a kind of 'best friend' for him. He could talk with her of his problems about the fact that he was half-Phoenix. And sometimes he really just needed that. He nodded.  
"What was it this time?" she asked and sat down.  
He sat next to her: "She told me not to shimmer."  
"Well... maybe she's just afraid that someone could notice. I mean... Bogus has turned a blind eye on that... but the other Phoenixes are still out there, too."  
"I know," he muttered, "but... would you go on feet a way of half an hour when you could shimmer in a second?"  
She smiled: "No... I don't think so..."  
Tom smiled too.

°°°°°°°°°°

Nicki was walking through the empty hallway of the school. She should have already left, but she took over the exam-correction from Paige. There was again 'family-business' forcing her to go back home.  
So Nicki spent the last three hours with exams and tons of stupid mistakes. But now... now she was right on the way to meet her friend.  
Steve was sitting on the steps of the grand stairway. When he heard Nicki calling for him, he stood up.  
She smiled when she saw him.  
"Overtime?" he asked.  
"Paige's family business!" she answered while she went closer to him.  
He nodded smiling and hugged her tightly. Then they kissed.  
"I've missed you," he said.  
"Missed you, too."  
They kissed again. It had taken a long time of 'back and forth', but finally they had come together. And Steve would never let her go again... Well, that's what he had said to her after their first kiss...  
They were still hugging and kissing, when they suddenly heard a noise.  
"What was that?" Nicki asked.  
Steve looked around: "I don't know."

°°°°°°°°°°

"I love you..." Chris mumbled, semiasleep.  
"No, I love you more..." Bianca answered in the same tone.  
"No, no, no... I DO love you MORE."  
Bianca chuckled: "Yeah, as you say, you stubborn Halliwell..." She gave him a soft kiss on his cheek. "But I love you more..." she added in a whisper.  
Chris began to laugh and hugged her playfully.  
Suddenly, a noise made them startle. Chris jumped to a sitting position: "What the hell was that?"  
Bianca sat down more slowly, and frowned: "No idea..."  
They stood up and went out, to see what the noise could have been.  
"Where did it come from?" asked Bianca grasping his hand tightly.  
Chris shook his head: "I don't know... The library?"  
Bianca shrugged: "Let's go there, and we'll see..."  
On their way, Steve and Nicki passed by them running.  
"Hey!" Chris cried, "you two, where are you going so quickly?" He grasped the boy's shirt to stop him.  
"Chris!" Nicki said, turning to them.  
"Ouch..." Steve complained.  
"Ooops, sorry..." Chris said, letting go off him. "I thought you were some naughty boys..."  
"Have you heard that?" Bianca asked Nicki, looking towards the library.  
The girl nodded: "That's why we were running... I think it came from somewhere over here..." Chris looked in the same direction: "O.k., wait here... I'll go."  
"I'll go, too," Steve had placed himself by Chris's side, who was about to forbid him to go, but the young Halliwell remembered how hard it was not to be seen as a real adult, and smiled at him reassuringly. "O.k. ... But stay behind me." Then, they crossed the doors of the library, while Bianca and Nicki watched them from the middle of the corridor.

* * *

_(Chapter 2 written by Belén and Chrissy.W.x) _


	3. Chapter 3

**A Charmed Story - Part Four:  
Marriage with Obstacles  
Chapter 3**

"Wow!" Phoebe opened her eyes widely at the sight below, just after materialising on the top of the bridge. "Oh, my God... I think I'm gonna faint... How the hell can you, whitelighters and Elders, like coming here?"  
Leo, with the shape of Piper, and Paige, smirked and grabbed the girl by her two arms. Then, Leo looked around. "There's no one here..." he muttered.  
"Well, then we were wrong!" Paige answered. "So let's go home and forget this, o.k.?" She was starting to orb when an invisible hand held her down.  
"No, you were right," a strong and deep voice said behind her.  
Leo and Phoebe looked in the direction from where the voice came, but they couldn't see anybody. "Who's there?" Leo asked, worriedly.  
"They want him, I need you to come with me now," the voice said instead.  
"But whom? Whom do they want?" Paige asked, frowning, and making the attempt to push the invisible arm away. "Is it for Chris, Leo, Wyatt...?"  
They didn't know if the man gestured with a shake of his head or a nod, but he didn't utter a word.  
"Is it for Cole?" Phoebe asked trembling.  
"We cannot talk here," the man said, and after that, he took the three people on the bridge with him, away from other ears.

°°°°°°°°°°

"Do you like cookies?" Piper asked all of a sudden. Tom raised his eyebrows, surprised, as she went on: "Come on, man... I need to do something else. The kitchen is brightening like gold now... I can't just sit down and wait! So do you like cookies? I can make some..."  
Tom smiled: "Of course I like them..."  
"Great, chocolate?"  
Tom opened his eyes delighted: "Yeah! Chocolate is cool! Chris is always talking about his mom's chocolate cookies."  
"Oh..." Piper turned to him, grinning, "is he?"  
Tom nodded: "Yep, he says that it's good that Wyatt is so little, because in his future, when they were kids, Wyatt always ate them all, and let him try not even one, at least..."  
"Oh... " Piper's face saddened. Chris's bad memories were always there, haunting him... Even those small things, that were stupid in a normal family, added up to his sadness.  
But Tom realised: "Oh, yes, he says that; but he then starts laughing evilly and adds that little Wyatt is gonna pay for that now, because he's gonna eat them all, because he's now older and stronger and he's an Elder too."  
That made Piper laugh. "O.k..." she took the ingredients, and prepared the oven, "I'll make sure that there are so many, he can't eat them all..."

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris stepped into the library hesitantly. He had absolutely no idea what he would find there. Moreover, it was up to him to find out, as Steve was younger than him and looked up to him. The responsibility was on his shoulders.  
Gingerly, he walked a few steps forward, as softly as he could. The last thing he would want to do was to alert the intruder, whoever he, or she, was. A loud crash penetrated through the original stillness and both men jumped. What exactly were they up against? Was it just a normal demon that can be easily vanquished with merely a spell? Or was it something much more dangerous, a creature to which they might fall prey?  
Chris cast a glance at Steve, who was apparently scared, too. He swallowed. Fine, he thought, it's entirely up to me then.  
He motioned for Steve to wait, and that he would proceed first. Then, carefully, he walked towards the crash. Just then, he spotted a metal bar lying on the floor and with one swift motion, he picked it up. It would certainly do well as a weapon, should he need defending himself, he figured.  
As he neared the bookshelves, he raised the bar above his head and almost made it come down upon the intruder, but stopped himself immediately as he saw the body lying there.  
"A RABBIT?" Steve choked with laughter.  
Chris couldn't help laughing, too. "How on earth can a rabbit appear in magic school is really beyond my imagination! Especially if we are so afraid of just a tiny animal! Come on, let's pick this furry guy up and bring him to Bianca and Nicki."  
Chris walked towards the animal, trying to catch it, as he chuckled to himself. He certainly was losing it. Too overly jumpy and worried, was he. It was only a rabbit! He laughed at his previous worry.  
But what he did not realise was the imminent danger he was walking right into. He had barely heard Steve yelling a warning before he found himself bouncing off an invisible wall and hurtling backwards. He flew through the air and landed on the floor with a loud thud as Steve ran towards him to help him up.  
"Wh- What happened?" Chris asked groggily. He could still visualise stars dancing around him and he mentally kicked himself for being so careless and acting stupid in front of the young boy.  
Steve gulped. He didn't know how to explain. "I... I don't know, Chris, but I think we're in trouble," he said, as he stared at the newly transformed demon. The rabbit was gone, and in its place stood a well-built man, sneering down at them. "I think we're trapped in a cage."

°°°°°°°°°°

Piper placed her last batch of chocolate cookies into the oven and wiped sweat from her eyebrows, using the back of her oily hands. Sighing with weariness and relief, she smiled as she watched the boy eat her cookies with pleasure.  
"Like it?" She asked, though knowing the answer.  
"When Chris says that his mom's cookies are the best, I must admit that for sure he wasn't kidding!" Tom replied, grinning, his mouth full of cookies.  
"Glad that you like it." Piper laughed. "Want some more?"  
"Yeah!" Tom nodded enthusiastically, then sombered. "But... I've already eaten 2 batches... and this is your last batch. What about Chris?"  
Piper smiled. "It's all right. I can easily bake more. Finish this up and I'll bring out the next batch for you."  
The boy happily gorged himself on the remaining few cookies left on the plate, but one. He didn't want to be accused of not knowing his manners. "Mrs Halliwell, you can have the last one."  
"Really? Thanks." Piper strode over to the table and picked up the cookie.  
Just then, she felt a sharp pain in her stomach. The feeling was so intense, so unbearable, she winced in pain as she fell to the ground, and the cookie flew out of her hand.  
Tom ran towards her. "Piper, are you all right? What happened? Should I get help?" He asked worriedly, rattling off questions. It all happened too quickly, he wasn't sure about what had happened.  
"I... Chris!" Piper realised the implications of her pain and shouted before she blacked out.

°°°°°°°°°°

Victor and Cole ran into the kitchen. They had heard a noise of something falling which had made them jump up form the sofa.  
Victor knelt down to his daughter: "Piper sweetie, what's wrong with you?"  
"Chris..." she muttered again, gaining back her conscious a little.  
"Your baby?" her father asked.  
"Leo! Chris! Cole yelled.  
Tom turned pale, and Cole put his hand on the boy's shoulder to comfort him.  
Piper tried to fight the pain. She looked to her father staring him into the eyes.  
"LEO! CHRIS!" Cole yelled again, but none of them orbed in.  
"The other one?" asked Victor. Again Piper wasn't able to answer. "So what is it, sweetie?"  
Cole took a deep breath: "O.k., Victor you stay on her side... and keep calling for Leo!" The man nodded.  
Then Cole turned to Tom: "Shimmer me to the school!"  
"What?"  
"We have to find Chris, so do it!" he ordered.  
Tom took his hand and both shimmered out.

°°°°°°°°°°

Nicki and Bianca had followed the boys from a little distance. Now they stood in front of the doorway smiling.  
"Should we help them?" Nicki asked. She held the rabbit in her arms, which had run out of the library after the demon had appeared, and fondled it.  
Bianca chuckled: "Hmmm... No!"  
Both started to laugh till they were running out of air.  
"I... I can't believe that," Bianca said then, "I mean... I thought Chris himself had come to this school, so why doesn't he know about that book?"  
Nicki smiled: "Well... We had it in our first year, so Steve should know that too..." She made a short break and frowned: "Maybe he forgot to think about this, maybe he's still afraid of not being safe here... I mean... because the last attacks!"  
Bianca sighed: "Yeah, maybe we should really help them..."  
Nicki looked into her eyes, and she looked back.  
"Noooo..." then, both of them said.  
It was too funny to watch Chris and Steve fight that imaginary demon, which had jumped out of the 'book of nightmare', when it was opened after the rabbit had pushed it down from the table. The book had been made to scare little witches and to make them realise that demons are nothing to play with. But it was all an illusion. The boys only had to close the book, but they didn't realise it. As long as they thought it was a true attack the demon could fight them.  
Suddenly the girls heard another noise behind them and turned around.  
Cole was standing there, next to Tom, looking really pale, trying to gain back his balance. "Man, what the hell was that?" he asked.  
"Sorry," Tom, replied, "I wanted to warn you that I'm not so used to that shimmering stuff, even more when it's not shimmering more than myself... but you..."  
Cole stopped him with a movement of his hand: "Alright, alright... I'm still alive... as it seems."  
"What are you doing here?" Bianca asked.  
Now the man noticed the girls. "Bianca? Nicki? Where is Chris?" he exclaimed.  
Bianca pointed at the doorway: "Fighting an illusion."  
Cole and Tom went a little closer. "The book of nightmare?" the latter asked.  
Nicki nodded chuckling.  
"O.k. guys stop that," Cole ordered, "Piper is sick, she needs Chris's help." Bianca turned pale, same as Nicki.

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris and Steve were fighting that huge and ugly demon. But not even the flashes from the Elder were able to hurt him.  
"Something is wrong here," Chris remarked and Steve nodded.  
Then they saw Bianca coming in. She just went through the demon to the table in the middle of the room. 'Through the demon?' Chris thought.  
Then they saw her picking up a book from the ground, closing it. And in the same second the demon was gone, same as all the destruction. Everything in the room was as usual again.  
Chris and Tom looked at her in disbelief. Then they realised the truth and blushed.  
Bianca smiled, but then she turned serious again: "Guys, believe me, I would have loved to watch you fighting that 'nightmare' a little longer... But Cole is here, he says that Piper needs you, honey!"  
Within a second, Chris was on his feet again. "What's wrong?" he asked his uncle standing in the doorway.  
"I don't know, but we shouldn't lose time..."  
"Let's go, honey, I'll take care of the others," Bianca ordered. Chris nodded and orbed to the manor with a little qualm inside him.

°°°°°°°°°°

When he rematerialised in the hallway of the manor seconds later, no one was seen. "Mom?" he yelled.  
"In the living room..." that was his grandpa.  
Chris ran over there. He found his mother sitting on the sofa, her feet on the table and a glass of water in her hand. She smiled weakly. Victor was sitting next to her caressing her cheek.  
"Mom? What happened?" he asked, kneeling down next to her, "Cole told me that you needed me..." She just sighed. Chris turned to Victor.  
"A few moments before I thought your mother would die or something..." Victor explained, "she was lying on the floor in pain."  
"What?" Chris felt real bad sorrow.  
"But then it stopped; whatever it was..." his grandpa added.  
In the same moment the others shimmered in.  
Cole and the young witches looked at Piper with sorrow while Bianca went over to her too, and took her hand: "Are you o.k.?" She nodded.  
"But what was that?" Chris asked still worried.  
Piper looked him into the eyes: "Son... have you ever had a premonition?"  
"You mean..." Chris asked unbelieving.  
She nodded: "Yeah, I think I had one... and for the reason that I don't have this power, I thought it must have been yours... and your vision."  
Chris frowned: "I can't remember that I ever had one... But the timeline has changed so... maybe that little kid and me are more different then we had thought..."  
"What did you see?" Bianca asked.

°°°°°°°°°°

"Hey, man, whatever you have done, don't do it again. Never!" a very upset Phoebe yelled right after materialising in 'God-knows-where.' It was an empty square room, white walls, no furniture... But nothing weird, either. It was like any normal room, with its doors and lights... Even windows! But they three were there alone... At least, 'visibly'.  
Meanwhile, Paige stumbled to a wall, in order to support herself on it: "I hated that, next time let me orb, on my own..."  
"That wasn't 'orbing'," Phoebe remarked, turning around herself and looking up to the ceiling, very frustrated. "That wasn't shimmering either... shit!"  
"Let's say it was a new way of transportation," a voice said, the same one that they had heard on the Golden Gate.  
"What...?" the two sisters asked at the same time, as Leo searched with the sight for the owner of those words.  
Suddenly the man appeared in front of them. He wasn't exactly the demon they were expecting, after all. On the contrary, they found themselves in front of a tall, well-built black man, around his fourties, of kind and sad eyes, and a very peaceful countenance, wrapped up in a long white cloak.  
The glamoured Leo frowned: "Where are we?" he asked, pacing to one of the three windows. He peered out with the intention of discovering where they were, and he couldn't help choke a surprised exclamation when he realised that outside, there was only a beautiful field. A very bucolic landscape, with its flowers, trees... man... even sheep! "I... I can't believe this..."  
The two sisters stared at the silent man, and then rushed to look out of the window too.  
"Wow! What is this?" Phoebe asked, shocked.  
The man smirked: "This... my friends, is virtual reality."  
All the three sisters turned to look in his eyes, with their eyebrows raised in surprise and disbelief. The man went on: "We can not risk you knowing where we are exactly... It'd have been too dangerous if you get caught..."  
"Oh... Funny," Paige replied sarcastically. So... you transported us here and faked this beautiful world... and what kind of demons do that? Because if I'm not wrong, even if you're a demon, you need our help, that's why we're here..."  
'Unless this is a trap...' Leo thought, as Phoebe interrupted her talk. "Oh... They must be the Power Rangers, man..."  
Paige and Leo glared at her, but the man only chuckled: "Yes... we wanted you to come here... because they want him..."  
Phoebe rolled her eyes: "NO-MORE-HIEROGLIPHICS... Please! Just... Who are THEY, and who is 'HIM'?"  
Paige nodded this time, and Leo waited, patiently.  
The man gave his back to them, and said, after a long deep sigh: "He doesn't want you to know that...yet."  
"Oh... great, now there's also a HE... Or is this HE by any chance the same as 'HIM'?" Paige asked, approaching the man.  
He turned to her again, sadly. "No..."  
"So is this HIM... someone from our family?" Leo intervened. The man just stared at him. "And if that's so... Why those demons are trying to... save HIM?"  
The man lowered his eyes: "The demons were also virtual reality. Their mission, just delivering the messages. They were destructed right after that. Disappeared... Deleted..." The three sisters frowned. They didn't know what to ask now. Well, they knew... But they didn't know where to start.  
"Are you saying this... is like the Matrix?" an incredulous Paige took the word, finally.  
This time, the man had to laugh: "Of course not! These are just... precautions." Then he made a pause.  
"Listen... There's not much time. You need to protect HIM above all, o.k.? It doesn't matter who is 'THEY' or who is 'HE'. The only thing that matters is that your son is alright... Leo." And he stared at the faked -and now surprised- Piper.  
"How... how did you know?" he asked, recovering his original shape.  
The man laughed again. "I know too much about you... Too much," he answered, "and now, do what I say."  
"What... what son is in danger?" Paige asked, this time.  
The man looked at her, surprised: "Christopher, of course... Who else?" Leo felt the world spinning around him.  
Then, the man took his arm, and asked the sisters to touch his shoulders. "I'll transport you again... It's safer, because they can't trace this type of travelling. Only orbing and shimmering."  
"Wait..." Phoebe said, suddenly, before disappearing," who are you...? At least, I guess you can tell us that."  
The man looked straight into her eyes: "I'm only the messenger. And I'm a witch, if that makes you feel better."  
Then he trasported them just after Phoebe and Paige tried again.  
"A computer-science-expert witch?"  
"And why did you create virtual demons to warn us?"

°°°°°°°°°°

"I don't know..." sighed Piper, "the pain was too much. There were many images, one after another... I couldn't grasp any. Only that in all of them was Chris. And I got the feelings of distress, fear, pain... a lot of pain..." She whined: "This can't be happening."  
Chris pressed his hand on her shoulder, not knowing what to say.  
It was Bianca who took the word: "What if it was only... a kind of nightmarish vision created by your pregnancy? I mean, we're bearing magical children... They might be developing their powers in the womb... And probably they don't control them. The little Chris might have created a vision out of a nightmare...?"  
Victor and Cole, as well as everyone in the room, stared at Piper and Chris, and waited for their confirmation. But they just shook their heads.  
"We can't ignore that something's going on, anymore..." said Chris, sadly.  
Bianca hugged him tightly: "Don't worry honey, we will marry tomorrow. Nothing can spoil that... I swear."  
"Yeah, you will," Piper said, "and that's why you'll go back to the school now and relax. You both."  
"But mom," Chris replied, "I don't want you to be alone with my little self having this visions. What if that happens again?... And... where the hell is dad, why wasn't he here?"  
"He and the other sisters orbed to the bridge... you know, the Golden Gate," Tom explained.  
"What? Why didn't you call us?" Bianca asked.  
"Because you should relax," Piper answered.  
"But mom...!" Chris exclaimed.  
"Enough!" Piper yelled. Everybody shut up. "I will not discuss this, got it?" she asked. Chris nodded weakly.  
At the same moment Leo, Phoebe and Paige returned. When the Elder saw his wife on the sofa, still pale, he went over to her: "Piper, what's wrong?"  
"I'm alright," she answered.  
"She just had a vision, as she said," Victor explained.  
"A vision?" Phoebe asked, "but that's my part!"  
Tom, Nicki and Steve couldn't help chuckling a bit. But when they saw the angry look of the empath, they kept silent again.  
"Did you find out anything?" Chris asked.  
Leo looked at his son, thinking about what he should answer. He wanted to keep all this away from him... just till tomorrow evening... after the celebration. But he wasn't able to lie to him.  
He sighed: "Well... we still don't know who is chasing that person, and who is telling us that. We only met a messenger..."  
"But he was a witch," Paige added.  
"Sounds nor good nor bad... in a way," Cole remarked.  
"And did he tell you who they want?" Bianca asked.  
Leo sighed again, same as Phoebe, who felt his inner fight. "Tell them," she said.  
Leo nodded. Then he looked into the eyes of his son.  
Chris looked back at him. And when he saw the sorrow and the fear in the eyes of his father, he knew the answer.  
"Great," he said, with a weak smile. Bianca just hugged him a little more. And now she felt as he had felt before... She was angry that someone dared to spoil their big day...  
"That fits," Piper whispered.  
"What?" Paige asked worried.  
"That fits to what I have seen, and felt... I felt that Chris was in danger," she answered.  
Everyone kept silent for a while. Chris was hugging Bianca; he just needed to feel her this moment. 'Why always me?' he thought. But in the same second, he had a feeling that everything was alright. He had a feeling like... everything was exactly like it had to be. Everything was going the right way, whereever that would lead to.  
Cole sighed. He felt sorry for this boy. Chris was more then just a nephew. He was his friend, more then anybody else in this freaky family. And he wanted him to have a good life, and not that... that shit.  
But when he looked at Chris, who already freed himself form his love, he saw him smiling... weakly, but still smiling.  
"And now?" Chris asked.  
Leo raised an eyebrow: "We still don't know who's after you or why, so..."  
Chris sighed: "I'll go to the school, where I'm safe, right?" Leo nodded. Chris jumped up and offered Bianca his arm. She took it with a sad smile.  
"Everything will be alright, I'm sure," he whispered to her ear, while the others were looking at him with suspection. 'Since when is it so easy to make Chris stay out of the action?' Piper frowned... same as Phoebe; the latter one even noticed that kind of weird feeling inside him.  
Then Chris turned to Victor: "Grandpa, would you like to come with us to see where we live?"  
Victor gave him a little worried look, but then he nodded. 'If the school is a safe place, it's better to go with them,' he thought.  
"See you later," Chris said and orbed with Bianca and Victor away.

_

* * *

(Chapter 3 written by Belén, aKaNe-MiZuKi and Chrissy.W.x) _


	4. Chapter 4

**A Charmed Story - Part Four:  
Marriage with Obstacles  
Chapter 4**

After Victor had relaxed from the orbing, Chris had shown him the whole school. Now they went back to Bianca. She had told them that she would prepare some coffee and cake.  
But when they entered the room, they found there also Steve, Nicki and Tom, already sitting on the table and eating.  
"What are you doing here?" Chris asked.  
Tom grinned: "Your mom sent us home."  
"So you live here too?" Victor asked.  
Steve shook his head: "No... but... well... If Piper doesn't want us to help them, we thought we could help Chris... and protect him..."  
Chris laughed: "Thanks guys, but I don't think that's necessary."  
"Better too much protection, than less," Nicki replied, and grasped another cookie. "We want to see you marry tomorrow," she added before she took a bite.  
Chris sighed smiling, and sat down by Bianca's side. Victor took the seat next to him. As he sat down he whispered to his grandson: "They really like you, you must have been a good teacher." Chris just smiled.

°°°°°°°°°°

"Did you just see that, his look?" asked Piper, still shocked after they had sent the teens home, too.  
Paige nodded slightly. "Yeah, weird... very weird... 'There's something about Chris'," she joked, but when she received the glares of every single member of the family, she lowered her eyes and muttered a soft 'sorry'.  
"Actually I think I felt something strange..." the empath said  
Leo stared at her: "Yeah? Apart from the fact that he didn't struggle to stay here?"  
Phoebe shrugged: "Maybe it was only my imagination, because his attitude was weird enough, and I might have thought he was feeling something... That's it."  
"Whatever..." interrupted Cole, "are you going to tell us what happened exactly? What did they tell?"  
"Well..." said Leo, "apart from the fact, that Chris is in a big danger, that THEY want him, whoever this 'they' are... and that HE had told him - the messenger - to warn us, whoever this 'he' is, too."  
Piper sighed: "Is that all? How are we going to protect Chris this way? From what?"  
Paige shrugged: "Well, he said this was enough information to keep him save, anyway... If we have him in the school, he'll be save."  
"There's something else..." added Leo, "this... messenger, said he knew us very well. He discovered me..."  
"Wow..." murmured Piper, in shock, "how is that possible?"  
"No idea..."  
"And what are we gonna do? Because I won't just stay here, waiting, you know?" Cole said, becoming impatient.  
Piper, obviously in a foul mood, demanded, "What else do you propose then, huh?"  
"I don't know! That was why I was asking!" Cole shot back.  
The tension in the room grew thicker quickly. There was an uneasy silence, and no one knew what to do. Suddenly, Leo decided to break the silence.  
"Let's... let's stop this, okay? Everyone is worried about Chris, so it wouldn't do us any good to fight. Right now, all we need is everyone's cooperation, and without it, we -"  
"Yadda yadda yadda. Go on and play mediator then! If talk is all you know, then go ahead and let's just watch Chris fall deeper and deeper into this... this... goodness-knows-what!" Cole blurted. "I can't stand another minute just waiting here... not knowing what it is after Chris.. not knowing about his safety... not knowing ANYTHING!"  
"And you think we can? Come on, Cole, you know perfectly well that everyone - EVERYONE ELSE - is worried too. Chris is not just your friend, but he is our son, our nephew... he means something to everyone here, we all love him and care for him as much as you do!" Paige said; then sighed. "Tell you what. I have a plan - not too big, just a fundamental one. We can bring Chris back here. "  
"Are you crazy? The demon or whatever-else-it-is-called might appear anytime and claim him!" Cole yelled.  
"Get a grip, will you, big man?" Paige glared at him. "What I meant was, we could bring Chris back here, and leave him in a crystal cage, so that he will be protected. I'm not sure about this... but there is a slight possibility that the demon, or whatever it is, might show up once he senses his presence. In other words, Chris will be playing bait; only, he will be safe. Meanwhile, Piper, you can conjure up as many vanquishing potions as possible, especially the most potent ones, while Phoebe and I will go up to the attic, check the Book of Shadows and come up with spells. Oh, and we can help scry too, except we have nothing to scry for."  
"I... I'll go check with the rest of the Elders to see what they know." Leo offered. That was his classic line.  
"What about me?" Cole demanded. "Hey, I want to help, too!" Then, spotting the grim expressions on all four faces, he sighed. "Right, Wyatt again. I get it, I get it. Damn, at times I really wish I had my powers back, you know?"  
"You can come on up with us." Phoebe suggested. "We could do with some help. Moreover, I suppose we can call upon our ancestors for some guidance too."  
"And I'll bring Chris back as soon as possible, after I've been up there." Leo assured.

°°°°°°°°°°

"It's sad that you can't control that forcfield-thing," Tom said suddenly to his friend. Steve looked at him confused. "Well, then you could protect Chris..."  
Chris couldn't help chuckling a little.  
"You have a forcefiled? Like Wyatt?" Victor asked.  
Steve nodded: "It seems so, yes, but it just appeared one time... I don't know how to pull it up on command."  
"Yeah..." Bianca added, "same goes for me... the kid has a forcefiled too, but we can't count on that..."  
Now, Chris sighed: "Even if we could, I'm not going to hide behind someone's forcefield for the rest of my life."  
"Don't you know who is after you?" Victor suddenly asked.  
Chris frowned: "What do you mean?"  
"Well... you came from the future so I thought..." he tried to explain.  
Chris laughed: "No... You know, in my time, there was only me, I had no older version of myself who was in danger... I didn't even exist at that time... so... no, I don't know."  
His grandfather blushed: "Sorry... That's a complicated topic..."  
"Never mind."  
The others smiled.

°°°°°°°°°°

After their little coffee-break, Chris, Nicki, Steve and Tom went to the library. They wanted to have a look at some books... There was still a lot stuff which was not written in the book of shadows.  
Victor and Bianca stayed there in the hall and relaxed.  
"So... we have been friends too... in your time?" Victor asked after a while. Bianca just nodded. "And you know Chris since...?"  
"Since the day he and Cole brought Patty to us," she explained without thinking about her words.  
But then she regretted it, because Victor asked: "To us? To you and?"  
Bianca sighed: "Sorry, I don't want to..."  
"No, no..." Victor interrupted her with a soft voice, "please... tell me."  
The Phoenix looked at him for a while; then she sighed again: "They brought the girl to my mom. She should take care of her."  
"Your mom? Why didn't the sisters...?"  
Bianca rolled her eyes, she knew there was no way back. "Because they were dead," she interrupted him, "I'm sorry."  
Victor was speechless. Bianca just looked at him. She knew she shouldn't have told him that, but... Well, he was asking, so what else could she do? Lying to him? Lying to the only person who was always there for them... Never!  
"How?" Victor asked after a while.  
Bianca sighed again: "I'm not sure if I should tell you that and... I don't want to lie to you."  
Victor nodded, but... he was also curious about that. "Please," he said.  
Bianca smiled weakly; then, she simply said: "Wyatt."  
Victor leant back on the chair, shocked, completely shocked. Now he slowly began to realise what his grandson had gone through, and what he meant by his words, when he said he wouldn't miss his own time.  
Bianca went over to him and hugged him: "Don't worry; this time, he will not be evil... never!"  
Victor nodded slowly. Then he turned to face her again, thinking about something else: "Chris told me he met you when he was fourteen...?"  
Bianca nodded: "Yeah, that's true..."  
"But that means that... Oh my God..." Victor suddenly felt so much pitty for the young man.  
Bianca smiled at him: "Hey, don't worry... that all happend a long time ago... well, for us... It took a little while but he got over it... and now, he has them back... And they will never die that early again."  
Victor nodded: "Yeah, but... it's not right, that he had to be on his own so early."  
"Victor, believe me. Bianca interrupted him, placing her hand on his arm, "he wasn't alone... First, he had Cole, and then he had you an me..."  
"Well... my grandson seems to have had a lot of luck to meet such a kind and lovely woman," Victor replied smiling, making the Phoenix blush a little.

°°°°°°°°°°

"What are we searching exactly?" Steve asked.  
Chris sighed loudly: "Well... I think first we should look up any recorded attack to an Elder. Cause I think this is the smaller part."  
Nicki nodded: "Definitely!"  
They took out some books and started to flip through the pages.  
"Can I ask you something private?" Tom asked after a while.  
"Sure," Chris answered.  
"Is it true that you and Bianca will go back to the Halliwell manor when the baby is born, that you'll leave the school?"  
"Who told you that?" Chris asked smiling.  
"Just a rumour," Steve added.  
Chris looked from one to the other. "Well," he said, "It's right, the sisters want us back home... But first they have to do some enlargements there... And there are also Cole and Phoebe, who need a little more room, so... It won't happen, not for now."  
"But in the future you will leave the school?" Nicki asked.  
Chris laughed, because now he understood their question: "No, never... I really like being the head teacher and I plan to keep that job as long as I live. So... Don't worry, alright?"  
The friends nodded smiling.  
Then they kept silence for a while, concentrating on the old written lines.  
Suddenly Chris raised his head again. "Wait," he said reorganising his thoughts.  
"What did that man tell them about me? Did anyone of you know that?"  
"When you were gone, Leo told Piper that he just said the one they want is Christopher," Tom answered.  
Chris frowned.  
"Shit!" he exclaimed then, and stood up.  
"What?" The others asked at the same time.  
"Forgotten? I'm not the only Christopher in this family," he said and orbed back home to his mom.

°°°°°°°°°°

"Chris!" exclaimed Piper when he materialised in front of her, in the kitchen, where she was preparing some vanquishing potions.  
She sighed: "I should have guessed your submission wouldn't last forever..."  
Chris ignored her comment, and went straight to her, with his eyes widely open because of his anxiety. "They're not after me, mom!"  
She frowned, stopping suddenly what she was doing: "What? Have you discovered something?"  
"They're after Christopher, mom. Your son Christopher... I think it's actually THAT son..." he pointed to her womb, with his finger, and the woman looked down, following the direction it marked.  
"Well, Chris... he's not born yet... o.k.? And you're here, in flesh and blood. The percentage that it's you that is in danger is..."  
"Listen," he made her stop talking, "I'm here, alive, and very healthy, yes... But I'm what... ten years younger than you? Even less. They said they were after your son, didn't they? I don't look like your son, and not every demon which is after us has to know that... I guess. And they said Christopher... You always call me Chris, like that, I don't know... But I have the feeling that the baby, and you, are in danger. Not me. At least not THIS me."  
Piper stared at the floor, pensive: "You might be right..."  
Chris nodded. "Where are the others?" he asked, noticing suddenly their absence.  
"Phoebe, Paige and Cole are trying to find out something about all this... stuff, and they said you could be the bait, actually... But I think they were going to call some ancestors first..." she frowned.  
"And where's dad?"  
"Dad went to talk to the other Elders..."  
Chris nodded again, as he saw Piper's wiping her hands, and said: "Well, the bait is here. But maybe they shouldn't be calling the ancestors... I don't think that that is necessary..."  
"Piper!" Phoebe cried, in a very excited tone, "Piper, come here right now, come on! Oh... my God..."  
Chris and Piper looked at each other, and then, the young man took her hand and orbed them both to the attic.  
There was a big circle of candles in the middle, and apart from the light these gave away, it was quite dark. However, just in the middle of the circle there was a strong and blinding bright, that made Chris and Piper close their eyes.  
"Did you invoke mom, Phoebe?" Piper asked.  
Paige approached Chris and smiled, as he tried to open his eyes, and Cole placed his hand on Piper's shoulder, comfortingly...  
"Not exactly!" Phoebe was almost dancing in front of her sister, unable to stay quiet and still.  
"Phoebe what the h...?" she had to stop. She had just opened her eyes, and could see who was there, getting out of the magic circle and gaining a more human aspect.  
"Oh, my God..." she almost passed out, but Cole and Chris took her by her arms.  
The figure approached Piper slowly, with a slight smile on her face: "You've done great as the oldest sister, Piper... I knew you would handle that perfectly... in my absence."  
Piper's eyes welled up in tears, as she started to shiver. "This cannot be true..." she mumbled.  
Chris narrowed his eyes. "Aunt... aunt Prue?" he asked, shocked.  
The woman turned to him grinning, and caressed his face: "I've been observing all of you from up there... All our ancestors, as well as myself, feel so proud of you!" she said, "some of the most conservative have applauded that the first male offsprings of the family are so... brave."  
Chris smiled back at her, his own eyes getting watery. Paige pressed his hand in silent. "Thanks..." he muttered.  
Prue turned to Piper and Phoebe again: "Don't cry, my girls... You should be happy!"  
Phoebe was, she couldn't hide it. She was just so moved! But Piper felt really sick. She had always dreamt with that moment, and now... Now she felt she could lose it at any time.  
Prue kissed her forehead and hugged her, as Cole stepped aside to let them alone, and went to Chris.  
"But how...?" he was going to ask.  
Paige and Cole shrugged. "We wanted to bring someone who could give us some responses, you know..." she explained, "we didn't try to invoke any ancestor the way we usually do. But we didn't even think she'd come. Man, I wanted to meet her so badly!"  
Cole smiled, but Chris was very confused. "How is she supposed to help us?" he asked.  
Prue, who had heard him, let her sisters go for a moment and turned around to him. But suddenly she stopped and closed her eyes for a second, unnoticed by the others.Then she replied: "Because of the prophecy..."  
Now the whole group stared at her, wonderingly.  
"The day in which the Sun is defeated, in which the whole sky falls down, that day, two lives will collide, and the world will tremble in awe at the new power."  
"What's that?" Cole asked, without understanding a word.  
Prue smiled: "The longest day of the year, June, 24th... Midsummer Night is the night in which the sun is defeated, since the following day, the days start to decrease..."  
Paige nodded: "That's what people believed in the past, yes..."  
Prue went on: "There will also be a great star shower, that's why the sky falls down..."  
Chris became paler: "That day is..."  
Prue turned to him: "...your birthday. The little one's too..."  
Chris nodded, and everyone looked at him, in shock. "Two lives will collide... But," he looked in Prue's eyes, "that prophecy didn't exist in my time."  
She laughed. "Of course not... There was only one of you... But that day, magic started to work... You were born to make that prophecy real, to come to the past and get the two lives collide..." she explained.  
Chris nodded, but preferred not to ask about the 'new power' and the awe, and the trembling stuff. "But..." said Paige, since her sisters were a bit lost, "why YOU?"  
Prue didn't answer quickly. She looked at Chris smiling again: "Because... There will be a part of me in that baby... as well as there is in you, Chris."  
At that moment, Leo reappeared: "They don't know much... They just say that someone is really afraid of Chris, and weirdly enough, there's some demon, or witch-demon, interested in his being alive... They talked to me about a prophecy that..."  
All of a sudden he noticed the presence of Prue, and gasped: "Prue?"  
"But there are still four months to go till my birthday!" Chris remarked without paying attention to his father.  
Prue nodded: "Yeah only four months left, for that person who is after you to solve his problem."  
"Wait, wait, wait... There is something form you inside him?" Piper asked still confused about all what she had heard.  
"The telekinetic witch-power," Chris explained shortly. Prue nodded.  
"But...does that mean, that... that the world will be..." Piper wasn't able to end that sentence. She couldn't believe that her sons could be a danger, not after all what Chris had gone through, what she had gone through.  
"That we will destroy the world?" Chris spoke out her thoughts, with a weak smile.  
"No!" Leo exclaimed, "I don't think so, 'cause it's a demonic prophecy."  
Prue nodded again: "Yeah and there was also a prophecy about Wyatt, before he was born, and..."  
"Oh fantastic... Wyatt was only just about to destroy the whole world in my time... great!" Chris felt very sick at that moment.  
"And now?" Phoebe asked still not able to clear her mind.

°°°°°°°°°°

Bianca and Victor were still talking. Little by little their talk became more and more friendly. Victor really liked her, and he understood why his grandson loved her so much. She was really a very special, very kind person. And the most important thing for him, she seemed to be really a good one.  
Bianca was also happy about how their talk went on. After their first meeting at the manor, she was a little afraid about if they could be such good friends like they had been in her time, or not. She was worried that he could not like her... because she knew how important his grandfather was for Chris.  
"Do you already know what it will be?" he asked pointing at her womb.  
She smiled: "No... We don't want to know it... It shall be a surprise..."  
Victor nodded with a smile.  
"But anyway," she went on, "Chris is already thinking about names..."  
"Really?" he replied laughing.  
Bianca nodded: "If it's a girl, he will call it Hope, but we're still discussing that... and if it's a boy..."  
At that moment Steve, Tom and Nicki ran into the hall.  
"He's gone!" Nicki said.  
Bianca jumped up: "What?"  
"He orbed home," Tom explained.  
"He believes that the person they want could also be the unborn Chris!" added Steve.  
"O.k., you guys stay here and keep an eye on Victor!" she commanded.  
Victor wanted to say something, but Bianca had already shimmered away.

°°°°°°°°°°

When they noticed the air waving, Prue was ready to attack the intruder. But Chris put her hands down: "No!"  
At that moment Bianca shimmered in. She ran over to Chris and kissed him, and then she hit him on his chest: "How can you do that, you're in danger here!"  
"Sweetie, calm down," he said with a smile, "I'm alright... and I still think that they are after mom and the baby." Holding her in his arms, he felt a little better than a few seconds before. She always managed to cheer him up, she just needed to be there. He smiled and they kissed again.  
"Maybe they want you both?" Paige said.  
Bianca turned around to her: "So maybe you should both go back to the school." Then she looked at the new guest and her eyes turned cold: "Hello Prue!"  
Prue didn't answer, she just looked at the Phoenix with distrust.  
"O.k.," Phoebe asked frowning, "what's going on here?" She could feel a kind of hatred from Bianca. A feeling she never felt before from that woman.  
"Nothing," Bianca replied.  
Chris sighed: "Come on... she isn't that... she even don't know you yet."  
Bianca looked at him: "She is still the same person, she doesn't like me, she didn't trust me, from the first second." Then she turned around and focused on Prue.  
The witch just looked back at her and kept silent.  
Phoebe stared at Prue, then at Bianca, and finally at Chris, and then, feeling uneasy, she grimaced rather than smiled, and said: "O.k., o.k... I think I don't get it... You both met in the future? In the other future?" She was pointing alternately at the two women, who immediately looked back at her.  
"O.k... let's see... Chris, this means by any chance that you brought her to life too in the future, as you did with Cole?"  
This time Piper as well as Phoebe, and all the others, except Bianca, turned to stare at Chris, who stepped backwards shocked and shaking his head nervously.  
"Oh... hell, no! What do you think I am? A God?"  
Leo chuckled: "Almost... An Elder."  
But he choked back his words at the glare of the, this time, four sisters and Bianca.  
Prue jumped suddenly: "Cole, you brought Cole back from death?" For the first time she realised he was the other one there, the man she had ever distrusted and that had proved to be fatal to their family. "You brought him, and not me?" Prue was surprised, and even angry.  
"No!" exclaimed Chris, watching Cole stepping back, too, "I didn't bring him back. Not that way... He was not dead exactly, he was in the ghostly plane... And I just... don't know what I did, it just happened! It was him that saved me, Prue!"  
Prue relaxed, and nodded: "Oh, yes sorry... I've seen all that too... I was a bit jumpy, sorry Cole. But anyway... I understand the present but not that other future in which it seems..."  
She paused and glared at the Phoenix: "I don't get on well with this woman."  
Chris sighed: "It's your soul in the future, Prue... Just like now. That's why we both know you too. We invoked you all the time. Well, I did. Until you met Bianca..."  
The sisters and Leo looked back at Bianca, frowning, and saw her cold glare, that evilish look she had hardly ever shown.  
"But I think..." Chris added, patting Bianca's shoulder comfortingly, "that we should take advantage of this second opportunity we've been given... And there are other things to think about right now..."  
Leo nodded this time, and stepped forwards: "O.k... Let's go back to the prophecy, and the 'THEY' who want any of our Chrises dead, and the 'HE' who's helping us from the shadows..."  
Piper pushed herself against Leo's body, looking for his comfort and protection.  
Phoebe intervened then: "Remember the riddles? If Wyatt knew all what happened before, maybe he also left a riddle for us in the book."  
Chris stared at his aunt, thoughtful: "I don't remember anything that could actually look like this stuff..."  
But Paige and Phoebe were already flipping through the pages of the book.  
Leo looked at him: "Whatever... I think you two," he pointed up at Piper and Chris, "should go to the magic school, just for your own security."  
"But..."  
They both were starting to complain, when a noise came from downstairs.

_

* * *

(Chapter 4 written by Chrissy.W.x, Belén and aKaNeMiZuKi)_


	5. Chapter 5

**A Charmed Story - Part Four:  
Marriage with Obstacles  
Chapter 5**

The man in the white gown closed the door behind him. He looked around. The small, dark room was, on the one hand, full of magical weapons, potions and other things like that, and, on the other hand, full of computers and technical equipment.  
In front of the messanger stood a very tall demon, completely dressed in black, and looking onto some papers. When the man stepped closer the demon looked up. "Hello Julian," he said with his deep voice. The witch nodded with a slight smile.  
"Did they get the message?" the demon asked then.  
Julian nodded again: "Yes Belthazor, they did."  
A bright smile appeared on the red face of the demon: "Goooood!" Then he turned around again.  
Julian went a little closer: "You promised me an explanation."  
Belthazor grumbled something; then he turned around again: "Right!" He placed his arms around the witch and went with him a few steps aside to some stony seats. "Ask me... two questions, and I will answer them honestly... But no more!" he said as he sat down.  
Julian nodded. That was typical of him. Those two-questions-games. "Alright," he started, "I know you want to save those boys, but why?"  
Belthazor smiled: "I met the old one once, and thought he's nice..."  
"You said you would be honest," the witch replied.  
Belthazor grumbled again: "You know me too well..." He laughed, then he explained: "Well... o.k... Once when I and Cole were reunited for a while, I learnt all what he knew at that time... And therefore I know that we need this boy. He's the only one that can save us from the future he had lived in. A future where there is no place for you, or me... Even if he already saved his brother, he has something special, something huge... That's why this world needs him. And even if that means we have to help the sisters in a way... The boy, both boys must be alive!"  
Julian nodded, he knew that this was the truth. He always knew it when the demon was honest, or not. And he also knew it this time, even if he was sure that there was more...  
"Second question?" Belthazor asked.  
"Why do you need me? Why all these computer-stuff? I mean... you're the source."  
Now Belthazor smiled again: "'Cause the sisters know how to vanquish me... That's a kind of protection... The Charmed Ones are not used to that, and those who want the boy dead either."

°°°°°°°°°°

"Well..." muttered Victor uneasy, observing how the three teens kept eating and drinking as if everything was going fine. But from time to time, between their chitchatting, they directed some furtive looks at each other, worried looks out of the corner of their eyes. Victor immediately understood what all that was about: They were just pretending that there was nothing to worry at, because of Victor... But the truth was that they themselves were staying back only for him. He smiled without knowing what else he should do.  
"I guess I came in a very bad moment..." he finally said. The three teens raised their heads to look at him.  
"Why do you say that, Mr... Halliwell? " Nicki tried, showing him her most calming countenance.  
"Oh... Bennet. That's my last name."  
"Oh..." Let out the three at the same time.  
"Don't worry, it's o.k... I guess that my ex-wife's family had a stronger position in the world."  
The kids chuckled. "Yes... It seems so..." Tom laughed.  
"Well... Being next to my daughters and now their progeny too, is always being in the wrong place... For a normal human like me, I mean," he sighed.  
Steve nodded, pensive: "Yeah... don't tell us. But they're amazing, Mr. Bennet. All of them. And we're really proud that they took us into account when they needed some help, you know?"  
Victor smiled and stretched his arm to get some cookies himself. "Just call me Victor, please... Forget about last names and honours." The three smiled at the same time.  
"You're really anxious to go there now, aren't you?" he winked at them.  
"Oh, no, no, don't worry about us. We're here to help, and this is also helping," explained Nicki.  
Victor interrupted her: "Come on, don't lie... You're missing all the fun up here. You'd die to be there, helping, TRULY helping... "  
Tom blushed: "Well... Maybe..."  
Victor laughed as he saw how Steve hit his stomach softly, but rudely, to make him close his mouth.  
"No, we're fine here, promise. We wouldn't leave Chris's grandpa alone at any instance." Nicki took the dish with cookies, and stretched it towards Victor, grinning widely. And with the intention of cutting the conversation off and changing the topic, she said: "More cookies?"  
Victor raised one eyebrow, and then took a cookie. 'What else I could do!' he thought for the second time in a while.

°°°°°°°°°°

"What was that?" Phoebe asked.  
Chris was about to leave the attic and have a look, but Bianca held him back.  
"You go back to the school, now," she said and then turned to Piper, "and you, too!"  
Both were about to protest, but Bianca just grasped their hands and shimmered them on her own.  
"I can't believe that he's in love with a demon," Prue said when they were gone.  
"Maybe that's the reason, why she doesn't like you," Cole replied grinning evilly. He never liked that witch very much. And he didn't plan to lie now. Prue glanced at him with a little anger.  
"O.k., stop, stop," Phoebe said, while another noise came from downstairs, "we have much more important things to do."  
Leo nodded and orbed down, while the sisters followed by feet. Cole was also about to follow them, but Phoebe asked him to stay. "Look up the riddles," she commanded.  
Cole sighed. He really hated that part! But what else should he do? So he went over to the book and flipped through its pages. But there was nothing that could help them.

°°°°°°°°°°

Leo orbed in the kitchen. There was no sign of an intruder. He walked out to the hall and then to the living room. No sign. When he returned to the hall the sisters came down the stairs. "Nothing," he said.  
"But something has made that noise," Paige remarked, "so there must be something!"  
The sisters looked around, but there was no trace of anything... It was weird. The whole house was calm... too calm... it was kind of spooky.  
"Some things have changed here since my last visit," Prue remarked after a little while.  
"Oh, not that much," Phoebe answered.  
Prue smiled to her, and also to Paige who looked at her a little shy. "Did I tell you, that I'm proud to have such a brave half-sister?" she asked and winked.  
Paige blushed: "Thanks."  
Prue smiled again: "Never mind."  
Then, suddenly a vase next to her broke into pieces.

°°°°°°°°°°

Victor and the teens looked up when the others shimmered in.  
"Hey," Piper said, looking at her father, sitting there on the table and eating cookies.  
He nodded: "Are you o.k.?"  
"Sure," she answered.  
Then she looked at Tom, Steve and Nicki: "Didn't I tell you to go home? It's already late."  
"Well..." Chris answered instead of them, "they are here 'cause... we wanted to go through some lessons for the next week..."  
Piper smiled and shook her head: "I can't believe that you've managed to hide your real identity from me, for over half a year... You're such a bad liar." The teens chuckled.  
Piper laughed, but then her face turned serious.  
"What's wrong?" Bianca asked, while Chris looked at her with sorrow. Victor jumped up from his chair and went over to her, too.  
"I don't know," she muttered. Then she broke down yelling.  
"Mom! Piper!" Chris and Victor cried at the same time, leading her to the sofa.  
"Sit down here, sweetie, are you o.k.?" Victor was feeling helpless.  
"Is it the baby, mom, is it... me?" an anxious Chris asked.  
Bianca was also next to Piper, offering her a cup of tea, and placing some cushions behind her head so that she could rest it on them.  
Meanwhile, Nicki, Steve and Tom had stood up, and looked at her without knowing what they could do.  
"Maybe another vision?" Chris insisted, when he made sure his mother was relaxing.  
The pain had only lasted for some seconds, but it had been so intense! Then, she felt as if no air had reached her lungs for centuries! She started to breathe heavily until she recovered the normal breathing, little by little. Chris's voice brought her into reality. She stared back at him, scared and worried.  
"I'm afraid it was," she said with a broken voice. Her eyes welled up in tears.  
"What did you see...?" Bianca asked.  
Piper shook her head and closed her eyes. A weak, still sad smile appeared on her face when she felt the gentle touch of a very worried Victor, caressing her hair. "I don't know..." she whined then, opening her eyes again, "I can't catch the visions... It's only that pain!"  
The teens kept their eyes on Piper, Nicki and Steve holding their hands tightly.  
Chris swallowed. He was pondering an idea. "Mom... maybe we could cast that spell I used with Phoebe when Wyatt turned evil the second time..."  
Victor turned his sight at him, questioningly, but said nothing.  
"I could try to see what you see..." Chris went on.  
She shook her head: "Phoebe is able to control her powers, her visions, in a way. I don't think I can show this to you. Besides, I'm sure they're the baby's visions, not mine..."  
Chris and Bianca sighed, feeling helpless too.  
Then Nicki suggested in a low careful tone: "We could hypnotise you, Piper..."  
Chris and Victor frowned. "Is that safe?" her father asked.  
Nicki nodded: "She'll be fine. That's the only way to see what she's just seen, because those memories and visions are kept in the subconscious."  
"But they seem to be horrible. If she finds herself in a very extreme situation, she might not wake up, and..." Chris stated this time.  
Steve answered instead of Nicki: "We'll wake her up at the first symptom that she's feeling uneasy or in danger."  
Tom supported the idea: "Maybe in those visions there's some image of the demons that are after you..."  
Bianca looked at Piper, who sighed: "Let's do it as soon as possible..."

°°°°°°°°°°

Cole kept looking at the book, bored. He was resting all his weight on the bookrest where it was lying.  
At that moment, white-blue orbs filled the attic, and a few seconds later, little Wyatt showed himself, crying and mumbling: "Mom..."  
Cole rushed to the boy. He seemed to be really distressed, and he had never seen the little child that way. "Come with me, man. it's o.k... Did you have a nightmare?"  
"Unce Co..." he was crying desperately.  
"Mommy is fine, o.k.? Calm down..." he sat down, forgetting about the book, and sat Wyatt on his lap. The child kept on crying and repeating 'Mommy' all the time.  
"Hey, look at this... This is the horse of the little warrior!" Cole said in a cheering tone, moving his legs in a way that simulated a trotting horse. "We're going to save the princess now, she's calling you, do you hear her?" Wyatt's sobs started to reduce, and he even giggled with the trotting. Little by little, he was calming down, but he kept repeating 'mommy' for a while. "Come, on, Wyatt, you have to kill the bad man to save the princess."  
"The ba man want mommy," he sobbed. "And want Chis. I want mommy..." He started to cry again.  
Cole stared at him, surprised. "What?" He stopped playing, and the child was crying more and more again.  
Suddenly something broke downstairs.  
"O.k.," he muttered. He took Wyatt on his arm and grasped a sheet of paper and a pen to write a little note. Then he went over to the book again. He placed the paper there and took the book with his other arm. Wyatt was still crying.  
"Hey, little warrior, now it's your turn," he smiled at him, "I know you can do that, I know you can... You're big boy, right?"  
Wyatt nodded softly, still sobbing. He began to calm down again.  
"Come on," Cole whispered to his ear. Orb us together to the school, alright."  
It took a little moment and a few more words, but then Wyatt and his uncle disappeared in orbing lights.

°°°°°°°°°°

Meanwhile Chris had another idea: "Nicki, why don't you just try to enter her mind?"  
Nicki turned pale afraid of what she could see inside her. She knew she would see it as if she had to live that on her own.  
Piper, who was still lying on the sofa, shook her head: "No, I don't want her to suffer... Just try to hypnotise me.  
Nicki smiled at her thankful, while Chris just nodded. He felt real sorrow for his mom. Something was really wrong in that game, this time.  
Victor put his hand on his shoulder. Chris looked at him, looked at his weak smile. "Everything will be alright," the grey-haired man said to cheer him up.  
Chris nodded and hugged him: "Thanks grandpa."  
At the same moment Cole entered the hall, with Wyatt and the book. The others stared at him surprised.  
He intended to explain what was going on, but when he saw Piper lying on the sofa he went quickly nearer: "Oh my God... Your son was right!"  
"What?" most of them asked at the same time.  
Cole knelt down besides her, and Wyatt hugged his mom still sobbing. "The little boy came up to me, crying for mom. He was afraid. I think he felt that something was going on. He yelled for you and then for Chris," he explained.  
Piper looked at her little son surprised, and then kissed him on his cheek.  
"And why did they give you the book?" Bianca asked.  
It took a second till Cole realised that she was addressing him and what she meant: "Oh, no... I took it with us, I left a little note, saying that it's here. Something is going on at home and I thought it's better for him and the book to be here. So I asked him to orb us."  
"You mean Wyatt has orbed both of you?" Chris asked surprised, while Piper was looking at the little boy in disbelief.  
"Yeah," Cole answered, "he orbed us right into the kindergarten.  
"That's my brother," Chris remarked with a smile.

°°°°°°°°°°

Paige turned around when another vase was broken. Then she looked at the others again.  
"What's going on here?" she asked.  
"I don't know," Leo said.  
Phoebe looked at Prue. She was still smiling. "Have you got any idea?" the empath asked a little scared by that.  
"No idea," she answered.  
Phoebe suddenly got some very weird feelings... but she wasn't able to locate where they came from.  
"O.k., I think I should try a spell," Paige said. Her sisters nodded. Paige sighed and rose to speak.  
_"Whatever is around us here  
Invisible just to hide.  
Show us its real identity  
Come to our sight!"  
_At the same moment a light appeared in the middle of the hallway, bright and shining.  
"What is that?" Phoebe asked.  
Leo was speechless for a moment, then he muttered: "A kind of ghost, maybe." All the eyes were on the shining figure.  
Secretly Prue moved his hand, slowly and carefully, making sure that the others didn't notice. And she sent the ghost away.  
"Where has it gone?" Paige asked, after they saw the ghost disappear through the walls.  
"No idea," Prue said again, still smiling.  
Leo frowned. 'She's too happy,' he thought. Also Paige was a little irritated by that.  
"O.k.," Phoebe took over the action, "it's gone, so let's get back to the attic."  
All of them together climbed up the stairs again. But when they reached the attic it was empty.  
"Oh, my God... The book!" Paige exclaimed.  
Everyone was looking around, hoping that it was lying somewhere else. Phoebe went to the bookrest and found a sheet of paper. She read it to the others.  
_"Wyatt is a little uneasy. And because I don't know what's going on downstairs, I took him and the book to his mother. Cole."  
_"So maybe we should go there too," Paige asked.  
Prue frowned but still smiled: "Yeah, but how are we gonna get there?"  
Now Leo was frowning: "Thought you watched us, so you must know the way."  
Prue turned pale for a moment, but then her unkillable smile returned: "Sure, I was just asking about the 'how'... Will we use the door?"  
Leo sighed... he couldn't explain it... He felt that something was wrong. And while Phoebe was still happy that her sister was there, and hugging her, also Paige started to become a little uneasy.

°°°°°°°°°°

"Are you coming back alone?" the tall and elegant demon hissed pacing slowly towards his invisible subordinate, with his hands at his back.  
When he approached the place, a sudden and weird breeze shook the air in the very same place where seconds later the demon turned visible. He was shivering, and shrinking his head as much as he could, as if that way he could hide from the coming storm.  
"None of them was in the manor, master..." he mumbled. The one to be called his boss, made him raise his head and look into his eyes, as he went on speaking: "Only the Charmed Ones, and their Elder, the father of the boy... and Cole Turner was also there... They were distracted by something else, so I went to the babies' bedroom, but there was only the other one... that, Wyatt. I thought he couldn't see me, but he started to cry, and cry, and then he orbed away... I... Ihad to come back, I'm so sorry, master..." He was shaking violently now.  
His boss narrowed his eyes and looked deeply into his: "He might be developing some new powers... But it's just a baby... Why didn't you bring the eldest of the Charmed Ones, the one who's pregnant... ? Thought you had said that 'none of them' was in the manor... She's definitely 'one' of 'them', you bastard."  
The demon stepped back and tripped over a stone, which made him stumble, but he just recovered the balance: "No, master... the one who's pregnant, that one called Piper, wasn't there. Nor the other Elder... Chris."  
His master frowned, confused an irritated: "You stop now mumbling and telling incoherences, or else I'll..."  
"No, master, wait... I mean, three of the Charmed Ones were there, but one of them being the dead one. The eldest, Prue..."  
His master stopped stiff. "What?" That wasn't something he had counted on... "What the hell is she doing there?"  
"Master Zankou..." the demon went on, still shivering and with a trembling voice, "I think they know... They know what we're up to... somehow. That's why they hid both of them."  
Zankou, a demon with Arabic features, smart in all the senses of the word, turned his head slightly and narrowed his eyes. "How do they know, my dear friend..." he said in a kind tone, "how do they know... "

°°°°°°°°°°

A few minutes later, Steve, Tom, Cole, and Victor, who was holding little Wyatt on his arms, were sitting on a sofa just in front of Piper.  
The woman was on an armchair, in the middle of the room, with her eyes closed, and Nicki, just before her, was speaking to her very softly so that she relaxed. She had started to feel better little by little.  
Chris, however, was really uneasy. He had been pacing from one place to the other, and his attitude wasn't helping his mother to calm down, so Bianca had decided to take him to the library, and see if they could find there something else about that weird prophecy. Something that could help. The library was a box of surprises; actually, you never know what you can find there.  
"We should be doing something in this place. Such a magical site and we still have to go from one book to another, flipping through the pages, and wasting a precious time," Chris said sitting down on the floor, very frustrated.  
Bianca smiled and hugged him lovingly. "I hope that you are more patient tomorrow, when the bride arrives late, as always happens," she teased.  
Chris smiled making a sarcastic grimace: "I will, I promise... if I myself get to arrive in time."  
"We will, honey, I promise..."

°°°°°°°°°°

Meanwhile, Piper was getting asleep. "What about the pendulum?" she had asked when her eyelids started to fall over her eyes.  
Nicki grinned: "No need of a pendulum here..." Then she whispered: "Just sleep..." She was touching her temples. "Sleep..."  
Victor and Cole observed the scene very interested, although Victor was also a bit worried. Steve noticed it and pressed his hand on his shoulder.  
"That's not dangerous, I promise..." he explained. "She has done this to me lots of times... to help me with some stuff about my past too."  
'Your mom?' Tom asked telepathically, looking at his friend out of the corner of his eyes. Steve just nodded.  
"No..." Piper muttered, becoming very uneasy. It was starting.  
Nicki concentrated on her: "Listen to me, Piper... I'm with you; you don't need to worry, o.k.? Relax... relax... and tell me, just tell me what you see."

°°°°°°°°°°

"O.k... me and Phoebe go to the school and took the book and talk to Piper again, you and Paige stay here," Leo commanded.  
"Oh, but I want to stay with Prue," Phoebe pouted a little.  
"Yeah," Paige said, "but you can't orb if there's another visitor." Leo nodded.  
Phoebe sighed and took Leo's hand. But before they orbed, she turned to Prue again: "Don't run away, alright?" Her sister nodded smiling. Then, they orbed.  
"And what are we doing now?" Paige asked after the blue lights were gone. She really wasn't sure about how to behave in front of the great Prue. She was like a family-heroine.  
Prue just smiled and said: "I would like to have a hot chocolate, you too?"  
Paige smiled too: "Stay here, I'll take care of that." Prue nodded and the witch-whitelighter went out.  
As soon as Paige had left her, Prue's eyes became darker, her face paler.  
Then she shimmered away.

_

* * *

(Chapter 5 written by Chrissy.W.x and Belén)_


	6. Chapter 6

**A Charmed Story - Part Four:  
Marriage with Obstacles  
Chapter 6**

Zankou was pacing through his cave. 'Damn!' he thought. The return of the oldest sister was a real problem for his plans. The sisters could still establish the power of three, even if he took the pregnant one. "Damn!" he yelled.  
In that moment, a demon shimmered in. He looked like a human but his eyes were purple and his skin was light-green. He was very thin and small.  
"How dare you enter this place?" Zankou exclaimed and was about to kill the intruder.  
"Stop, stop, stop!" the demon yelled, "let me explain first, Zankou, you need me!"  
The tall demon lowered his hands: "Five seconds!"  
The small demon nodded: "I'm Gabriel, I'm from the order of Sorix. Our aim of life is to protect the world from the two lives that will collide!"  
Zankou narrowed his eyes: "And?"  
"And, I know that you are after that same target. So... we should work together, I think."  
Zankou laughed loudly: "How can a small stupid powerless demon be useful for me?"  
"I'm more useful, than the one you've sent to the manor of the Charmed Ones!" Gabriel replied with an evil smile.  
Zankou looked up: "How do you..."  
"...know that?" Gabriel ended his question smiling. "Well... I was there too. You know... when the sisters called for some help from the past I used one of my minor powers and distract the soul of that dead sister... And... I took over her place," he explained with a very evil smile.  
Zankou looked at him with suspicion, but then he smiled and slapped on his back: "You're a great guy... You really should start to work for me!"  
Gabriel smiled: "So we have a deal?"  
Zankou nodded: "Deal!"  
And the two demons shook hands.

°°°°°°°°°°

A few minutes later Paige returned with two cups of chocolate. But when she reached the attic it was empty.  
"Prue?" she called when she went in, but there was no response and nobody was seen. "Prue?" she called again and put the cups on the table.  
"Seeking me?"  
A little scared Paige turned around. Prue was standing behind her, smiling. "Don't scare me that way," the witch-whitelighter said, "Where were you?"  
"Oh sorry," Prue answered, "I was in the corner behind the door, seeking for some... memories." Paige sighed and nodded.

°°°°°°°°°°

Piper was shaking her head slightly, and struggled to get up, as tears ran down her cheeks.  
Victor was not able to bear the sight of his daughter suffering, and tried to reach her, but Cole and Steve grabbed his shoulders and pushed him down to a sitting position again.  
Meanwhile, Nicki was soothing the woman, caressing her arms, making her feel comfortable, so that she sat down quietly and co-operated. "Listen, Piper... it's o.k... you're safe..."  
"My baby..." she moaned.  
Victor's heart sank at her suffering, but Cole noticed and smiled at him reassuringly: "It's o.k... she'll be fine when she wakes up, you know? She's a very strong woman... and she'll do whatever is necessary for her children, but she'll get over it, as she always does."  
Victor nodded, grateful. Little by little, he was starting to trust and like that man. After all, Phoebe was very lucky to have him in her life... Really lucky.  
At the same time, Nicki spoke soft words to Piper: "What do you see, Piper? What's up with your baby?"  
"No! You won't have him!" she cried.  
Tom stood up and went to Nicki, worriedly: "Hey, shouldn't we wake her up?"  
Nicki shook her head and went on: "No, they won't... I promise... But you have to tell me who they are, please..."  
"I don't know... I don't know..." Piper whined desperately. "They have Chris... they have me... And they want to take the baby away from me... from my womb! - No, I won't allow you to do that!"  
"Where are you, Piper?" Nicki went on, ignoring the worried and scared looks of the rest in the room.  
"Don't know..." she weeped inconsolably, "I won't drink that... I won't give you my baby, Zankou..."  
All the eyes fixed on her at a time, even though Nicki kept impassive.  
"Zankou?" she asked, "who's Zankou?" Then she turned to the others and made a sign that they should have a look at the book.  
"He's with them..." Piper said. Sometimes she spoke as if she was being only a witness, and other times she was the main character of the action in her own vision... "He's collaborating with them... He has Chris..." she whined. "No! Don't do that to him, I'll drink, I promise..."  
Suddenly, Leo and Phoebe orbed straight to the room, and Cole, who had the book, raised his eyes to them suddenly.  
"Cole! Is Wyatt fine? The book?" Leo asked, nervously, "Is everything alright?"  
Cole and Victor hurried to make him stop talking, but it was too late.  
The newly arrived couple turned to look behind them, just to face a frustrated-looking Nicki and a shocked and sweating Piper, who jumped on her seat, her heart beating as if it was going to get out of her body in a moment.  
"What is that?" Leo asked. Then he stared at Nicki angrily. "What were you doing?" He ran to his wife, who suddenly hugged him.  
"They took Chris..." she broke down. "They're hurting him because they want me to drink that potion..."  
"What?" Leo and Phoebe looked at the others wonderingly.  
"It's o.k., Leo... I just hypnotised her, but she's fine, and Chris is with Bianca in the library. Don't you worry," Nicki explained as fast as she could. "Piper..." she added, "They're fine, I promise, you're mixing your vision with the reality, because you were rudely awaken..."  
Piper looked confused at all the people in the room, then at Leo. "They're gonna take us both. They're gonna take us, because they want Chris and my baby... because of that prophecy. They'll hurt Chris, maybe, but they won't kill him, I know..."  
Cole frowned, and Victor held his breath back "What do you mean?" Phoebe asked.  
"The others... I think they want them dead, the two Chrises... But the one called Zankou... he wants something else."  
Cole and Leo took the book again. They needed to find Zankou...

°°°°°°°°°°

"This is crazy... There are mountains of books that talk about prophecies..." Chris said, letting another heavy volume drop on the pile they had formed in the middle of the library. He was on the top of the stairs, and had already taken all the books about prophecies and visions that he had found in the lower shelves.  
Bianca was sitting next to those books, looking for something that could be of interest for them. "Look... Nostradamus. He predicted the end of the world!" she said, smiling.  
Chris sighed, getting downstairs: "Yeah... the problem is that we never understood when it was supposed to be... Now, let's focus on demonic prophecies... there must be something!"  
Bianca shook her head: "All the prophecy books here have to do with ancient ones; all of them have already taken place... Look at this..." she stopped at one page.  
_"When three planets burn as one over a sky of dancing light, and magic will rest for a holy day to welcome a twice blessed child."_  
"This one must be familiar to you," she added.  
Chris smiled: "Yeah... I think I know that one by heart. Well... Let's focus, Bianca... if we really want to... you know... finish with this on time."

°°°°°°°°°°

"So... they now know about that prophecy..." he kept pensive for a while.  
Then summoned the demon that had failed in his previous mission, who came instantly before him. "I was thinking about killing you... But it seems that we have new allies, and this was... his work." He meant the fact that nor the Charmed One or her son were in the manor. "They must be hiding in the only place where we can't set foot, so... we'll need them to get out," he smirked.  
"Try to figure out a way to bring those two back home... Oh... Maybe you'd be interested in the help of one of them... In the manor, look for the eldest, Prue, the one who died," Zankou added.  
The demon nodded.  
"She's our ally."  
The demon then bowed and shimmered out, relieved that he was still alive, and willing to fulfil his mission, although he didn't understand why that so-called Prue would help them.

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris was walking around among all the books on the floor, frustrated and a little angry, when Piper and the rest of the family went in.  
"Oh sweetie," Piper exclaimed, and hugged her son tightly.  
Chris was a little scared by that action. "Mom... What's wrong?" he asked.  
"I've seen you, I've seen us, imprisoned, and they'll make you suffer, because I have to drink a potion that would kill your little one," explained his mother as fast as she could, still scared on her own.  
Bianca went pale by her words. Chris swallowed. "But this will not happen, you're safe hear," the Phoenix then said.  
"I've seen it... Zankou will get us..." Piper replied.  
"Zankou?" Bianca asked.  
"You know him?" Leo was the one who had asked now.  
Bianca nodded: "Met him one time. We wanted to ask him to fight with us, but he betrayed us... he is evil, very evil." Piper turned pale. That description fitted perfect to her vision.  
Victor looked to Cole who had his arm around Phoebe's back, trying to give her some support, some strength. He sighed. "Don't worry," Tom, who was standing on his other side, whispered. Victor nodded but couldn't stop worrying at all.  
Chris was frowning, and looking to the ground. Then he grasped the shoulders of Piper and looked her into the eyes very deeply.  
"Mom, I want you to listen to me carefully, and do exactly as I say, alright?" he asked. She nodded a little afraid of his behaviour. "Don't worry about what will ever happen to me," Chris went on, "even if they kill me... Don't let them kill the little one, got it? Swear to me that you won't let them kill my little self, even if they kill me... alright? Just bring my body back home, but don't let them kill the baby!"  
"But Chris..." Piper didn't know what to say. She was shocked by his words, same as the others.  
"Swear it!" Chris yelled.  
"I... I do... I swear," Piper said, even if she wasn't sure if she could hold on it.  
Chris smiled: "I love you, don't disappoint me."  
Piper had tears in her eyes. 'How could he do that?' she thought.  
Chris left her and went to the door, ignoring all the other worried faces. He took Cole's arm: "We have to talk." He pulled the man with him, out of the room, leaving the other behind.  
They went a few steps away, so that the other couldn't hear them.  
"What's wrong?" Cole asked then.  
"I have to tell you something, something that no one else knows by now," Chris explained.  
Cole sighed: "You really think that you will not get through this, right?"  
Chris nodded: "I don't know... A few hours ago I had a feeling like... like everything will go on as it should, you know... And now..." He looked at his watch: "It's already my weddingday... and I'm not sure if I will live long enough to be there on time." He smiled, while Cole was looking at him scared.  
"But anyway, that's not the point," Chris added.  
"And what is the point?" Cole couldn't believe that his nephew was about to give up this time.  
Chris smiled: "If I die, you have to save me!"  
"WHAT?" Cole yelled. "HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THAT?"  
"Hush... not so loud," Chris said. Then he began to explain with a low voice: "Not you exactly uncle... You know, I believe that Wyatt is able to save people from death, to give them their life back as long as they are not on the list of the angel of death."  
"What?" Cole asked again, but this time a little more quiet.  
"You know... He did it... the adult one, when he was here. He brought me back to life when we were trapped in that cave."  
Cole was looking into Chris's eyes. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "How?" he asked.  
Chris sighed: "I don't know. It was the first time he did it, he said."  
"Oh man," Cole replied, "how is the little boy going to bring you back to life when even the old one didn't know how?"  
Chris sighed again: "I don't know... maybe with a little Elder-help from dad... I have no idea... But if I die down there... that will be my only chance... So I just want someone to know what happened... Alright?"

°°°°°°°°°°

At the same time Paige and Prue were sitting in the attic waiting for the others to return.  
"How was it. when you heard that you were a witch?" Prue asked.  
"Wow... It was like... Wow!... and scaring, really scaring."  
Prue nodded.  
Suddenly, the air in front of them began to wave. Paige jumped up as the demon shimmered in.  
He attacked the witch with a crossbow.  
"Arrow!" Paige screamed to summon it and throw it back to the intruder. But instead, she felt a strong hit on the back of her head, before she lost her consciousness.  
The demon smiled, looking at the other witch. Prue was standing behind Paige, with a big and heavy book in her hands.  
Then her look changed and she turned to be Gabriel...  
The demon looked surprised, but then nodded.  
"Take her to Zankou," Gabriel commanded, "but she must not be hurt... she will be our bait!" The demon nodded again; then he took Paige and shimmered out.  
Gabriel smiled and turned to the shape of Prue again. Then she called for Leo.

°°°°°°°°°°

Cole and Chris stared at each other with glassy eyes for a short while. Cole wanted to tell him many things, that he wouldn't die, that everything would be right and that he would be there on time for his wedding... and he wanted to ask him not to do any stupid thing, because he could almost read his mind... But finally he just mumbled: "O.k., but..."  
He was interrupted by a gesture of Chris who raised his hand to hush him: "It's aunt Prue... she's calling dad..."  
He started to orb, but Cole grabbed his arm tightly. Chris rematerialised before him with an angry countenance: "What are you doing? She's in danger, I..."  
"This school is full of witches and whitelighters right now, and she's calling Leo, not you. You shouldn't go, Chris, after what we know..."  
"But... "  
Cole shook his head: "Let's go back to the others."

°°°°°°°°°°

In the library, Piper had sat down and was weeping. Phoebe was by her, as well as Leo, trying to give some comfort to the desperate mother.  
"Listen, Piper... I know a lot about this stuff. That was a vision... a premonition. But I know by experience that when you get one, it's because it can be changed. So this doesn't have to happen, o.k.?"  
Piper shook her head: "I know this will. Chris knows; he knows somehow. I saw that in his eyes... That weird feeling I got before, when he just came here without fighting... He's not fighting Phoebe! Can't you see that?" Leo sighed. He had also thought that his attitude was weird. "He's accepting the premonition as his fate... He's not gonna fight! And I don't know if I'll be able to see how they..." she broke down.  
Leo hugged her tightly: "That won't happen."  
"So... why did he want to talk to Cole in private, huh?" she asked.  
Phoebe and Leo exchanged their looks. They knew that Cole and Chris had that sort of affinity. They kept some secrets they wouldn't tell anyone, and they told each other the things that really mattered, those that scared them, those that were so bad, that no one else should know... Phoebe knew that well, because sometimes she felt what they felt in those moments, even if they were not in the same room... Their emotions were sometimes so overwhelming that she could feel them, even if they had taken that blocking potion... And Phoebe felt how Cole was feeling at that very moment, and she had to hold back her tears.  
Meanwhile, Bianca was leaning against the pile of books, feeling how her heart beat to death. She wished she could cry too, but she couldn't. She was so terrified that tears didn't dare to go out... Victor was by her side, pressing her hand tenderly without knowing himself what was going on exactly.  
Nicki, Steve and Tom observed the scenes from the distance, their looks somber and worried. Nick knew that the two boys were speaking with their telepathy, so that they wouldn't scare her.  
'Do you know that Zankou?' Tom asked.  
'The name's familiar... But I think he was on those obsolate books about extinguished, defeated and vanquished demons...' Steve answered.  
Tom just nodded. Then he asked again: 'Do you think Chris is going to...'  
'Or Piper...' Steve completed.  
'Naaah, they're the Charmed Ones, man... They'll get through this as they always do' said Tom as an afterthought.  
Suddenly, Phoebe's eyes rose to meet theirs. She didn't say anything but her look showed them that she had heard the whole conversation. They didn't understand why she was able to do that... Maybe that was a growth of her powers, since they all had to do with the mind.  
But Leo's voice stopped their thoughts: "It's Prue, she's calling me... something's wrong down there..."  
"We need to go..." Piper said, starting to stand up.  
But Phoebe kept her down: "No, girl, you'll stay."  
Chris and Cole got back at the same time as she said that. "I heard it, dad. Prue..." the Elder-witch said.  
Leo nodded: "I'll go.. You and your mother will stay here. Come what may, got it?"  
Chris and Piper nodded really unwillingly, but Cole patted his shoulder reassuringly.  
"I'll also go..." Phoebe said.  
Piper stood up again: "You don't have active powers, Phoebe... And who knows if Leo's are enough..."  
"I can go," Bianca intervened in a cold tone, "No one is spoiling my wedding and running away with it."  
Chris turned to look at her scared: "No way... You're pregnant. You won't move from here. We'll both stay..." He went to hug her: "I promise honey, I will stay. But you need to stay too."  
"We can go," Nicki suggested. Tom and Steve, who were still submerged in their telepathic conversation, turned their looks at her. "We've got active powers... some," she looked at the two boys, "we want to see our headmaster and headmistress married tomorrow." She smiled and the boys nodded, unsure.  
"O.k..." Leo said, feeling it was important, "Give me your hands".  
Tom smirked, grabbed his two friends' hands and shimmered with them to the manor before Leo himself could orb.  
"Damn it..." he took Phoebe's arm and orbed away.  
Victor went to his daughter and caressed her hair: "You'll get out of this sweetie..."  
Chris and Bianca were still hugging. Bianca's eyes finally welled up in tears.  
Chris smiled at her: "Don't cry, sweetie, please."  
She nodded, but then she leaned her head on his shoulder, sobbing into his shirt. Chris hugged her tightly. He took her head in his hands and kissed her tears away. "Don't worry, everything will be alright." Bianca nodded, still sobbing a little.  
Cole was observing them. Slightly, he shook his head. He couldn't understand what was going on with him. He thought he would know Chris very well, but this time...? Why was he giving up? There must have been a reason for all that, but... he couldn't find it. He sighed: "Chris, come... we have to talk again!"  
Chris looked up. He looked into the sad eyes of his uncle and nodded. "I'll be right back," he said to Bianca. Then the two men left the room again.  
Bianca hid her face in her hands and cried again.  
Victor sighed: "Come over here, Bianca." He offered her his shoulder.  
She smiled weakly and sat down next to him. Victor hugged both women, one with each arm. "Everything will be fine... I know that," he said softly, "Chris is a Halliwell, right?" The others didn't answer. "But... I have a little question. Why is Prue calling for Leo... Did you... bring her back?"  
Piper smiled a little.

°°°°°°°°°°

Meanwhile the others reached the attic. Prue was sitting on the ground, and she was holding her head with one hand.  
"What's wrong?" Leo asked.  
The teens were a little confused by that sight. They have heard a lot of stories about Prue, but seeing her now was weird.  
Prue sighed: "They've got Paige."  
"WHAT? WHO?" Phoebe yelled, went over to her and hugged her.  
"I don't know," Prue explained. "There were four. They were talking about Zankou... who-, what- or wherever that is. And they said they wanted Chris and Piper."  
"Why didn't they take you?" Leo asked.  
Prue sighed again: "Don't know, I haven't asked...They just beat me down, took her and shimmered away."  
"Maybe," Nicki rose to speak, "we should bring her to the school? It's safer there. And then we have to find that Zankou and free Paige." Leo nodded.  
"No..." Prue suddenly exclaimed, "I will not go to the school!" When she saw the confused looks of the others, especially Leo and Phoebe, she knew she had gone a little too far. She was about to spoil her cover on her own, but if they tried to take her to the school, they would now anyway... So she added: "There is no time, we have to do something."

°°°°°°°°°°

Darryl was still sitting in his office. It was already past midnight. The last morning he had promised his wife to come home early, but at lunchtime he had called her, and told her that he will be late again... too much work those days.  
She was not very happy when he told her that. "You should come home, you have to go to a marriage tomorrow," she had said. 'Yeah, Chris will marry tomorrow...today,' he thought with a smile. He still didn't understand all that about him, but he was happy for him and his girl. He liked them.  
He sighed and rubbed his tired eyes.  
Suddenly a little window popped up on his computer. "You have received an e-mail," he read. He sighed again and opened the window. He looked at the sender address... he looked at the subject... none. He shook his head. 'Seems like the sisters already arrived in the 21st century, too,' he thought. He opened the mail and read it. Then he opened his eyes widely. That wasn't from the sisters. He read it again.  
_"The oldest sister is still gone; actually she has never come."  
_That was all.  
Darryl frowned. Then he printed this massage out, took the paper and his jacket and left his office. He didn't know what that was about, but he had the feeling that he should show that to the Halliwells.

_

* * *

(Chapter 6 written by Chrissy.W.x and Belén)_


	7. Chapter 7

**A Charmed Story - Part Four:  
Marriage with Obstacles  
Chapter 7**

Cole and Chris walked along the grand hallway. No one said a word for about five minutes. Then Cole broke the silence.  
"O.k. boy... Explain me that" he said.  
"What?" Chris asked.  
Cole sighed: "Why are you giving up? You never give up; you're Chris, the one that always fights!"  
Chris shook his head: "I don't give up, believe me." And in his thoughts he added: 'I'm just tiered of all this.'  
"And why did you tell me all those things?"  
"Cole... there's a reason for everything I do, o.k.? Just remember that, and don't question me anymore." Chris sighed and turned away. "I have a plan, o.k.?"  
"Then tell me!" Cole demanded. "Tell me what it is, so that I can know too! Chris, listen, none of us wants to lose you, and you know that we'll always be here for you, too. Plus, I would want to help you too. I owe you."  
"Ahhh... there's no such a thing as 'owe' in my dictionary, Cole. Look, just let it go, alright?"  
"No, I won't." Cole replied stubbornly. "Well, mister: since you've got such a great plan, why not sharing it with this less intelligent mortal here?"  
Chris gazed in the far distance. "Cole... to tell the truth, I don't have a plan. I just... according to what Piper said, Zankou would torture me to get her to drink a potion that will cause her to lose my little self. I... Mom never said if I managed to withstand and survive those tortures, maybe I couldn't..." He sighed once more and faced Cole with glaring eyes, "there wouldn't be ME anymore! Don't you get it? This is the only way... I figured out that if I can get mom to swear never to give in... Even if I die from the torture, the little one will still live on. In other words, I will still live on, at least in a way. I won't be erased from existence or whatever; not completely... there would still be at least one version of me. It's the best chance I've got. We can't afford to lose both of me, can we?"  
Cole was speechless. He understood where Chris was going and he empathised. In him, his inner self told him that Chris made perfect sense with his simple analysis, but his emotional self just could not even bear the thought of Chris speaking like this. Chris was, after all, his closest friend...  
"If I am unlucky and I am gone before my wedding day... Tell Bianca that I truly love her, o.k.? And that I will continue to watch over her and the baby, always. Always and forever...  
I can't tell her that personally now because I'm afraid I will hurt her. She's too vulnerable, this girl. Too emotional at times. But I suppose that is what I adore about her." He chuckled. "But of course, what am I talking about? As I said, I won't ever give up, unless necessary."  
Both guys remained silent - Chris with a wishful smile on his face and Cole showing a serious expression.  
"I... I suppose so, man." Cole softened. If Chris had decided, then so be it. He would respect any decision his best friend made. He smiled gently. "Come on, guy, you're the man. You're the groom! So why talk about such unpleasant stuff? Let's spend some quality time together, all right? Celebrate the last of your bachelor days!"  
Chris smiled, but his eyes showed that he was still worried.

°°°°°°°°°°

"No! I insist on you going to the Magic School, Prue." Phoebe insisted. "It's safer there."  
"But... But as I said, we're running out of time! We gotta do something and we have no time to lose." Prue sputtered. "Don't worry about me," flashing her 100 megawatt smile, she continued, "I'll be fine. I can take care of myself. It's Paige whom we should be concerned about." She stood up and dusted herself.  
Leo and Phoebe exchanged short glances before Phoebe spoke, "You're right. At the moment, Paige is more important. No offence, Prue."  
Prue grinned. "Oh, don't worry, 'bes."  
Phoebe was taken aback, but she did not let it show. As far as she knew, Prue hardly called her 'bes. She remembered how Prue had given her a little talk a few years back on how we should treasure the names we were given when we were born, and not create silly nicknames. And no one had ever called her 'bes before. But of course, Prue had got over that matter since then. Nevertheless, it was just plain odd to find her sister extremely hyperactive and chirpy all of a sudden, especially since she had been attacked less than minutes ago, and Paige had been taken away right in front of her eyes.  
"Great!" She managed a grin as her thoughts were racing. "So... what now?"  
Leo, apparently tipped off by Prue's weird behaviour, said, "Well... I suppose we could... send Prue back up there for now... And if we need you again we could call you down, but for now, I think you'd be safer up there. What do you guys think?"  
All three youths shrugged as an indication of their "no-opinion", while Prue looked like taken aback.  
"B-But... w-why?" Prue exclaimed. "You shouldn't do that!" Then, sensing she was overdoing it again, she calmed down and explained with a huge smile, "I only meant to say, I would want to stay and help. After all, you couldn't possibly think I'm going to return up there now that I know that my half-sister is kidnapped? If you do, then you guys are seriously wrong! I'm staying to help! Period!"  
"Well..." Leo began uncomfortably.  
"Uh-uh." Prue shook her finger. "No more arguing, Leo. I'm the oldest here!"  
Phoebe felt something was weird. It just did not make sense if the usually responsible Prue was actually using her age to command authority. That was just too childish - unlike Prue's character.  
Leo coughed. "Actually, I am. Forgotten? I'm an Elder!"  
"You are?" Prue appeared astonished. "Really? Oh my... How long have this - I mean, I, since I died?"  
"A few years?" Phoebe offered.  
"Oops!" Prue giggled. "Sorry, I simply forgot!"  
Phoebe merely raised her brows. "All right, cut the crap. Let's get down to some serious business. I'm gonna go around here to see if I can get a vision of what happened, or how Zankou looked like. And -"  
"No! Don't!" Prue looked flustered. "Don't bother, I mean. I can easily describe or sketch out how he looked like. I suppose you could... could do something more productive."  
"Like?"  
"Like... check the Book of Shadows? Make potions? Come up with spells? Simply, just do your usual whatnots - what you do usually."  
"My dear sister... do you remember, the Book of Shadows is at the magic school? Besides, without knowing anything about this demon Zankou, how can we make potions or write spells?" Phoebe rolled her eyes. "I'll tell you what. I'm gonna save you the time from sketching. I never trusted your artistic talents, anyway. No offence. So, if you don't mind, I'd like to..." But she was interupted.

°°°°°°°°°°

The doorbell rang through the entire house. The man waiting outside was going impatient. He figured he had to hand this letter in as soon as possible, but on the other hand, it was late and he knew Sheila would not take his lateness pleasantly. He bit his lip, deciding that if the sisters did not answer by the third time he pressed the buzzer, he would leave.  
Just as he was reaching up to touch that button once more, the door was yanked open. Phoebe's face came into view.  
"Erm.. hey," he began.  
"Oh hey Darryl! What is it?"  
Darryl glanced behind her and saw a troop of people following her. There were the three teenagers, Leo, and... "Prue?" he gasped, astonished.  
"In the flesh," she smiled. "Hi Darryl."  
"You're... you're alive?"  
"Well... not exactly. Let's discuss this another time, would you mind?" she answered somewhat uncomfortably.  
"So, what's the matter?" Phoebe asked, drawing his attention back.  
"Oh, well, I... " Darryl considered his options. On his way to the Halliwell manor earlier, he had somehow figured that the e-mail had something to do with either Prue Halliwell or Piper Halliwell, being the "eldest". Then, he narrowed down the options to Prue, as she was the only one "gone". He would definitely like to hand the printed e-mail over to Phoebe right now, but then there was the presence of Prue to consider. What if the source of the e-mail was right? What if there really was... was something... unnatural... about Prue?  
After a moment, he continued, "Well, nothing much really. Just wanted to drop by and say hi since I've not seen you guys lately." Carefully, hoping that he would do it unnoticed, he folded the printout and placed it in his pocket. "Except... could I see Phoebe alone for a moment?" Mentally, he kicked himself for being so obvious.  
"Uh... yeah sure." Phoebe replied, confused. "I'll just step out for a moment, o.k., guys?" She turned back to the lot and stepped out the door. Then, she gestured for Leo to close the door.  
"Look, I know this sounds crazy but... I just received some sort of e-mail... it seems like a tip-off, but anyway, it says something like Prue is not who she is. I know this is too painful, but it says that Prue is gone and remains gone, and quite possibly, the current Prue we have standing here is not Prue herself."  
"Huh? What do you mean?"  
"Here. Look at this." Darryl handed her the printout. "This... this whoever-it-was, sent me this e-mail just a few minutes ago and I figured it was better if I'd let you see it. Of course, you guys are the experts, and I just... well, I was merely trying to make sense of this message... so... yeah... Anyway, I gotta go. Sheila's waiting for me and I'm quite late. I should leave first, all right?"  
"Yeah yeah, sure. Uh, thanks a lot, Darryl." Phoebe answered, still deep in thought.  
Darryl bounded down the steps and left. Phoebe carefully folded the paper and placed it in her pocket, just to be careful. Then, slowly, she entered the house again, wary her in facial expressions.  
"Now, what just happened?" Prue asked suspiciously, knowing something had been going on.

°°°°°°°°°°

Cole sighed. He still was confused about Chris's behavior. He was sure the fighter was still in him, he just had to wake him up. Then he had an idea: "You know... there is something I never told you, too."  
Chris frowned: "What?"  
"When your brother was here, and you both had that little fight... he told me the reason for his visit." Chris raised his eyebrows but kept silent. "He told me that you and that little one... well, you know the story on your own, I think." Chris nodded.  
"So... what I mean is...," Cole went on, "he told you and me that you'd become a very nice old man, right? So... I think you... you have to go through this..." Chris sighed. "And he told you should not work always on your own... you promised that to him," Cole went on, "and you told me that you would keep to that promise, right?"  
Chris nodded: "Yeah I know... But... who knows how much the time has changed... I just want to..."  
"No, definitely not," Cole laughed, "your adult older brother is as stubborn as you... If there had been something wrong in his time, he would have returned again, believe me."  
Chris smiled: "Yeah, maybe you're right."  
"Oh, I'm sure I am... And you? You will not give up, right? You will fight for you, for your own family, for your little-self, and eventually for Wyatt, right? You know, he needs you!"  
Chris nodded with a smile.  
"Alright," Cole nodded, "So stop saying that you're not going to marry today... alright? You will!"  
Chris sighed, then nodded: "Yeah, you're right... Come on; let's go back to the others."  
Cole smiled, glad that he had finally cheered him up a little, to make him return to his strength again. Chris smiled back: "Thanks, uncle. Thanks for everything."  
"Boy, you've done much more for me than I could ever do for you... So no need to thank me, alright...?" Cole took his arm around his nephew and together they walked back to the library.

°°°°°°°°°°

Phoebe smiled: "Oh... it was just about a gift for Chris and Bianca. And... anyway he gave me a list with that food which is already prepared... Bianca will need that, and I think it's good if she gets some distraction..."  
"Distraction?" Leo asked while Prue seemed to be really confused.  
"Yeah," she went close to him, smiling. Then she turned him a little around so that he had Prue in his back, and the faked spirit of her siter couldn't see her face. "That isn't her," she whispered almost inaudibly. He frowned, and then nodded.  
Meanwhile, Phoebe went over to Tom and Nicki. "You should also come with me, Nicki, we could look up the books again... Tom, could you shimmer us?" Tom nodded as he looked in her eyes. Something was going on.  
"What about Paige?" Prue asked.  
Also Steve noticed that Phoebe acted in a very weird way. He stood a little aside. Then Phoebe turned to him without reacting on her sister's words. "Meanwhile you could scry for Paige, till we're back," she said to him. Steve nodded.  
"But..." Prue started again.  
"We'll be right back," Phoebe interrupted her smiling. Then, Tom shimmered with Nicki and Phoebe back to the school.

°°°°°°°°°°

When Chris and Cole returned Piper was lying on the lap of her father while Bianca leaned on his shoulder.  
"Hey," Chris said.  
Bianca jumped up and hugged him. "Oh, honey," she sobbed.  
Chris held her tightly: "Don't worry. Everything will be alright, I swear."  
From the corner of his eye he saw the worried look of his mother. He smiled at her; then he turned to Bianca again, kissing her tears away.  
"Hey, sweetie you should stop crying... Or will you marry me with red and swollen eyes?"  
Bianca smiled. And then she noticed the change in his eyes. She didn't know what Cole had said to him, but she knew that her Chris was back. "I love you," she said.  
"I love you too."  
Also Piper smiled now a little. Cole sat down next to her and Victor, with a very satisfied look on his face.  
"What have you told him?" Victor asked.  
"Nothing special, I just reminded him of something..." Cole answered and Victor nodded.  
Bianca and Chris were still hugging and kissing. "What do you think," he said to her, looking deep into her eyes, moving his hands slowly down her back, "should we go to our room to have... a little break?" She smiled full of love for him and nodded. Chris smiled back and took her hand. They were about to leave, when Tom and the others shimmered in.  
"What's wrong?" Chris asked, knowing that something was going on.  
"Prue isn't Prue," Phoebe said.  
"What?" everyone exclaimed at the same time, also the teens.  
"Here, Darryl got this mail," she said, and handed the print to Chris. Then she turned to Tom: "Contact Steve, we need to know what's going on at home." Tom nodded.  
"But Phoebe, this massage is very..." Chris said and handed it over to Piper.  
"I believe it's from those people who want to help us," she explained.  
"But... I mean... I think that was Prue... She..." Piper remarked.  
"Well... when we were at home," Phoebe explained, "she was acting very weird. And she absolutely didn't want to come here..."  
"That's really weird," Cole remarked, looking at the e-mail, too.  
"Except if she is a demon," Phoebe added. Then she turned to Chris: "Do we have a computer here? I mean, we could answer to that e-mail, right?"  
Chris nodded: "There is one, but I don't know if it's connected to the internet." He made a short break, and then asked: "What about Paige?"

°°°°°°°°°°

It took Phoebe only a few minutes to fill the others in with all the news. Now they all felt kind of helpless. They didn't know what to do...  
"It's my sister, I'll go down and..." Piper said weakly, but determined.  
"You'll stay Piper. With the rest," Cole answered quickly.  
"But... if they want me and..." she tried.  
"No buts, sweetie..." Victor intervened, caressing her hair. "Even if she's not my daughter... I also love her. But if you go there you'll give them what they want."  
Phoebe nodded. If she knew something about premonitions was that they were there to be avoided. "And that way you'd risk everyone else..."  
Tom stepped forward: "Steve and I will go. With Leo, perhaps. They won't expect us at all."  
Chris stared at him, not knowing what he should do. Risking the kids was too much. He couldn't do that. What if they died instead of him... That wasn't fair; he wouldn't be able to live with that.  
But Bianca took the word: "I think you three should go alone down there again, and do what you were supposed to do, so that the demon that is faking Prue doesn't suspect anything... And we here should go to that computer, now."  
She grabbed Chris's hand and pulled him towards the door. He smiled back at Cole and then his mother and Victor, and nodded. After that, he simply orbed them both to the above-mentioned computer.  
Wyatt started to cry again at the distance. Piper realised for the first time that the little child wasn't there and was scared. But her father and Cole laughed.  
"He was right there a few seconds ago... don't worry, Piper... I haven't taken my eyes from him in all this time," Victor said, "well, at least until he orbed... right now."  
Piper got up and ran to the crying voice.  
The child had just orbed to the canteen... He was hungry, but there was nothing he could eat because everything required some preparation, so she decided to do the cooking. She took Wyatt on her arms and sat him down on a chair.  
"You've got a bad mommy, sweetie... I had forgotten what time it was." At her voice, the child soothed and chuckled.  
In the library, meanwhile, Phoebe turned to Victor and Cole right before Tom shimmered them back again: "Let us know as soon as you get some response or clue about that e-mail. I guess it comes from that witch that told us about all this stuff from the very beginning... That messenger and his master. And don't worry dad... We won't get Piper or Chris involved. Whatever happens, they won't be caught."

°°°°°°°°°°

Belthazor paced frenetically in front of the computers, as Julian stared at one of the screens on a wall attentively.  
"Did he get the message?" the demon asked.  
Julian frowned: "I'm sure he did... But you could just go there and..."  
Belthazor shook his head: "I can't risk them, none of them good or evil, discover this."  
Julian chuckled: "I guess this is the first time you're not sure for whom you're working..."  
Belthazor cast a furious glance at him: "I don't work for anyone... This is all for my own sake, and you know that. Otherwise, you yourself would be dead..."  
"But you need me," the witch asserted.  
"Your knowledge... To save the Underworld..." Belthazor was really furious, "That Zankou and that stupid order... They don't realise what they're just doing. Whatever the power this Chris has got, and his little self joined, they're nothing compared to the future that awaits us if they're killed."  
The witch smirked but said nothing. He knew a lot more. He knew that Belthazor wanted to save that family just because he couldn't kill them anymore. There was something that prevented him from doing that... Something that was weakening the will of the source of all evil, and that would give power to Zankou in the end, he thought sadly.  
That was the only reason why Julian was helping him. Because he knew that deep inside, his intentions were good. There he was: A demon in the border of good and evil. Really funny. Belthazor glared at him. "What are you thinking about?" he asked suspiciously.  
Julian shrugged: "Nothing."  
"I'm not stupid, I know you. I let you see my memories... You know the family too well."  
'Yeah,' Julian thought. That's why he had known that Piper wasn't there. That it was Leo: Much calmer, much quieter... and apart from Paige, and Chris, the only one able to glamour. "And you know me... But don't get me wrong. I know what you do, and just, stay to the terms... Or else you'll die."  
Julian was going to answer, when the computer made a noise. There was a message.

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris and Bianca were staring at the screen, waiting for an answer. Chris had taken her to Gideon's office. There was an old computer there, no one used it, and it was safer, because all the information would be kept in secret.  
But there was another reason... Chris looked out of the corner of his eyes at the mirror, covered by the curtain. No one knew that he was still rendering visits to his other self there. Now he wanted to say goodbye. Even if he was going to fight, as he had promised... He had that feeling and wanted to say goodbye. Or maybe good luck and congratulations.  
He smiled as he looked at Bianca.  
"What?" she asked.  
"Nothing.. it's just... you're so beautiful."  
She couldn't help blushing a little bit. "Don't joke. Now I'm everything else but that."  
Chris chuckled.

°°°°°°°°°°

The massage they've got was simple: "Thanks. Who are you?"  
Belthazor looked at the letters on the screen for a few minutes, while Julian observed him.  
"And?" the witch asked finally.  
"What?"  
"Will you answer?"  
Belthazor was just mumbling. He wanted to help them, he wanted to safe Chris... But could he tell them another demon's secret? That wasn't reputable, that was wimpy.  
But what should he do? He had to give them at least another hint.  
"Tell them about Zankou's last death... not HOW, but THAT!" he ordered to Julian.  
The witch nodded and wrote a short massage. He smiled while writing. He was just a small and unimportant witch, but... now he was involved in something big, something huge.. and that felt good...

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris was still staring at the screen. He tried not to look to the mirror. He was afraid that Bianca could notice that. 'She would kill me,' he thought.  
Bianca was meanwhile caressing his neck.  
Chris shivered: "Hey... That's ticklish."  
"I know..." she whispered to his ear.  
Chris turned his face to her, smiling: "Do you want to seduce me, or what?"  
"Maybe..." she whispered and kissed his cheek, and then his lips.  
Chris embraced her still kissing her. He loved to kiss her, to taste her. She was so beautiful. She was the light in his life, always and forever.  
Bianca kissed him deeply, intensely, strongly... A little too strongly maybe, because they lost the balance and fell down from the chair.  
"Ouch," Chris complained smiling.  
"Sorry, honey," Bianca replied.  
He laughed. She loved his laughter... it was as bright as the sun. She looked smiling into his wonderful green eyes and then kissed him again.  
His hands were wandering around all over her body. She moved her hand under his shirt, touching and feeling his skin. They were still kissing.  
Then, there was suddenly a little beep from the computer which made them stop their action.  
Chris sighed: "That's why I hate these technical things!"  
Bianca just laughed, he was so cute.  
Slowly they rose from the ground, put the chair back to the right position and sat down again. Then, Chris opened the new e-mail.  
"Interesting," he said after reading it, "let's see if the printer works."  
It did. A few moments later, Bianca was holding the print in her hands.  
"Go back to library and show it the others," Chris said to her.  
"You should come with me," she replied.  
"I'll follow you. Look, I will write an answer and..."  
Bianca smiled: "I don't think that they will answer you again... They wrote..."  
"I know, but..." Chris answered and looked to his watch again, "... it's one o'clock in the morning already... there is not much time left till the pastor arrives... so..."  
She nodded: "I know..." She was about to leave the room, but then she turned around again and looked into his eyes: "You will not leave, don't you?"  
Chris just stared at her. 'Why did she have to ask this?' he thought. He really didn't want to... but... "I'm always there for you," he answered.  
She smiled and left the office.

°°°°°°°°°°

A few moments later she was handing the print over to Piper who was back from the kitchen.  
Victor was feeding Wyatt, while Piper and Cole read the e-mail.  
_"Don't reply! We just want to help. Zankou has already been killed twice, but again he came back! That's all we can tell you. Don't reply!"  
_"Interesting," muttered Cole, "not what we wanted to know... but..."  
"So there must be some information about him somewhere," Piper added.  
Cole and Bianca nodded.  
Then, the witch jumped up: "O.k. let's take a look through the books again!"  
Cole smiled; then he took a book from the floor.  
Bianca sighed and did the same.  
"Should I go on?" Piper asked her father.  
Victor shook his head: "No, it's o.k., Piper... I still know how to do that."  
"I think, that's something you never forget," his daughter answered smiling.

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris hit the 'send' button. That was the second e-mail he had written. The first, to their helpers; the second one to their own address.  
Then he sighed and rose from the chair. Quietly he closed the door and went over to the mirror.  
When he took away the curtain he looked into a pair of sad green eyes, same as his own.  
"Hey," his evil-self said. Chris just nodded.  
For a moment they just looked at each other silently. Both didn't know how to start.  
"I just want to..." they then started to speak at the same time. They smiled.  
"Your turn," our Chris said.  
"O.k.," the other one sighed, "Do you really believe Wyatt could save you if it's necessary?"  
"Do you?" our Chris asked back.  
"That's not fair, I was the one who asked first," the evil Chris replied.  
"Right... so... I know that the adult one did it... and I hope the young one will be able to, IF it is necessary." The evil Chris nodded.  
"But... I'm not sure if I can do this... if I can leave..." our Chris said.  
But the evil one interrupted him: "Because you've been about to have sex, just a few moments ago?"  
Chris was shocked for a moment, even if he should have known that his evil-self had experienced the same things.  
"No," he answered then, "because we're going to have a baby... I shouldn't leave her!"  
"Look," the evil Chris went on, "if wouldn't be Paige, alright... But she was too important for us in our time... Even if we've saved the future and most of the things we lived will never happen this time... we don't know what will happen if she dies... Everything could break down again."  
Our Chris nodded: "I know."  
"Hey... You're really a... a good person," the evil Chris said with a sad smile.  
"Your hair isn't that bad... I think, I really like it," our Chris replied, and smiled too.  
Then he closed the curtain and orbed away, down to the underworld.

_

* * *

(Chapter 7 written by Chrissy.W.x, aKaNe-MiZuKi and Belén) _


	8. Chapter 8

**A Charmed Story - Part Four:  
Marriage with Obstacles  
Chapter 8**

"Don't you worry... You don't have to worry... This is happening because this is the way it has to be. Destiny? No... This is just the way it is, that's all. Don't question it anymore. You had to come down here, whatever the reasons are. You have to save Paige... And you'll have to undergo a lot, perhaps. But everything will be fine at the end. Just go along with it..." Chris was repeating that to himself as he walked through the dark cold and narrow passages of the Underworld.  
From time to time, he stopped in some hidden place and closed his eyes to try to sense Paige. And little by little, he was approaching the place... Little by little, his heart's speed augmented.  
Suddenly, he heard a voice. "You're not going to get anything from them. You're stupid if you think so..."  
"Paige..." he muttered.  
But at the same moment, a strong hand grabbed his shoulder and pushed him rudely towards the entrance from where Paige's voice came.  
"Master... I think this is the one."  
A smart and self-confident demon, with a very clean-shaved beard, turned to see him, and smiled at him kindly. Behind him, chained to a wall, was Paige.

°°°°°°°°°°

Paige had been unconscious for a while when she finally got over and woke up. She looked around. Her head hurt a lot, and she felt that a viscous liquid was wetting her neck.  
"Damn it..." she cursed. She had just realised she was chained to a wall. It took her some minutes to focus her sight and see the ones surrounding her.  
"Welcome to life, Paige..." Zankou said.  
The girl narrowed her eyes: "Who the hell are you, bastard?"  
He clicked his tongue in disapproval. "I'm a very sensitive man, honey..." He cupped her chin pressing so strongly that he hurt her. "You shouldn't insult me."  
Paige spatted at Zankou's face, and gathering all her strength, tried to orb away, but it didn't work. Her look was one of shock and fear.  
Zankou simply wiped the saliva and smirked: "Don't even try to escape. You can't orb... The chains are magical, sweetie..."  
Then she noticed there was another demon in the room, hidden in the shadows. He was chuckling.  
"Listen to me..." Zankou continued. "I don't even want you. Not this time, at least... I only need you for someone else to come here."  
Paige felt her heart sink. She knew what he meant: "Why do you want to kill him exactly? The prophecy?"  
Zankou laughed: "You're a little wise witch, you know that? No... Actually, I want another thing from them both." He whispered: "THEY want them dead, both of them. I might kill him anyway, when he's useless, and also your sister and the baby... but just for distraction."  
Paige wanted to cry and kick and kill that man, but she calmed down as much as she could: "So you want them because of their power?"  
"You got the prize!" Zankou clapped his hands. "But hush..." he whispered again. "Those men there.. " he pointed up behind himself, and Paige could see that there were more than one demon there, all of them skinny, greenish and with funny tattoos on their arms. "Those men there are so afraid of them that they want them dead."  
Paige shivered. This man was playing games with her...  
"Well, I'll get their power, and then, I'll give the useless prisoners to them, so that they can do whatever they like..."  
"And how are you supposed to get their powers?"  
"They'll give them to me, don't worry about that. A little sweet drink, and that's all. If they co-operate, they'll still be their whole selves by when my friends get them."  
Paige felt nausea at his sight. She wished she could do something else but... "You're not going to get anything from them. You're stupid if you think so..."  
Zankou stared at her angrily, but suddenly, a noise came from outside, and after that, one of his men appeared pushing Chris: "Master... I think this is the one."  
Zankou turned to face him, and smiled, relaxed and satisfied at his sight: "Welcome to my humble lair, Chris... Maybe we won't need Paige anymore."

°°°°°°°°°°

Prue frowned when she saw Tom coming back with Phoebe and Nicki.  
"Is everything o.k.?" she asked suspiciously.  
"Oh... They're looking at all the books in search for information."  
"The books?" Prue stopped scrying, if she had really been doing so, to stare at them.  
"Yes the books.." Phoebe smiled as kindly as she could, "and where are Leo and Steve?"  
"They're down there in the kitchen... They were bored of this scrying thingy..." she said bored.  
"So you didn't find her?" Tom asked.  
Prue shook her head tiredly: "But I did find this..." She took a note from her pocket.  
_"Bring Chris and Piper or else your sister dies."  
_Phoebe raised her eyes surprised: "Haven't you showed it to Leo? But how the hell did this get here? Are you fine?"  
Prue nodded. "It just appeared..." she was lying, evidently... "Anyway, don't worry about me, sister... I'm already a ghost."  
"Of course..." Phoebe frowned.

°°°°°°°°°°

Belthazor was staring at the screen, avidly.  
Julian kept looking at him out of the corner of his eyes. "It's because of his memories, isn't it?" he asked. He was really curious about this so-called 'source of all evil' that was now helping the supreme good ones.  
"Huh?" Belthazor was distracted.  
"You're helping them because you still have that part of Cole? Those memories together with his powers. You got the good and the bad... The memories you needed to know everything about the school... but also the ones that make you feel so worried and bad. Those that make Cole love them so much..."  
"Shut up!" Belthazor exclaimed in a cutting tone.  
"I'm sorry..." Julian smiled. He got him... Besides, he wouldn't hurt him at all. Belthazor wasn't the same since the last time he had seen the Halliwells and his other self. Since that boy had decided not to kill him... The screen illuminated and the blip sound filled the room: "You've got a message."  
Belthazor groaned: "I told them not to reply!"  
"Do you want to read it?" Julian asked.  
Belthazor was silent for a moment. Julian knew that behaviour... the source was thinking hard.  
Finally, the red demon nodded and Julian opened the massage.  
_"Whoever you are, thanks for your help. But I thought you might like to know that I'm now going to help my aunt Paige - Chris"  
_Belthazor screamed furious. "That boy is such a stubborn idiot, DAMN!"  
Julian frowned: "What should we do now?"  
"You go and help him!" Belthazor commanded.  
The witch looked at him scared: "Me?"

°°°°°°°°°°

Bianca sat on the floor with a book on her lap. Suddenly she felt something. It was as... as if something was wrong. She looked to Piper who just raised her eyes from a book too, and frowned.  
'Oh my God,' the Phoenix thought. "CHRIS!" she exclaimed.  
"What?" Cole asked surprised.  
Bianca jumped up and ran out of the door. Cole followed her scared.  
Victor looked at his daughter: "What was that?"  
"He's gone," Piper said a little absent.  
"WHAT?"  
She turned her head slowly to his father: "He's gone to save Paige."  
Victor sighed and put his arms around her. Piper started to cry while Wyatt was playing on the ground.

°°°°°°°°°°

Bianca ran to Gideon's office. It was empty. Afraid and desperate she was pacing through the room, when Cole arrived.  
He sighed. There was no Chris. 'Damn it!' he thought. 'He promised me he'd do nothing stupid. That freaky little... Why does he have to be such a damned stubborn!' But Cole needed to keep in his mind. 'No time to freak out, you have to help that girl,' he thought.  
He went over to Bianca and hugged her tightly. She started to cry. She cried so hardly that Cole really had to fight his own tears.  
"It'll be alright... I'm sure he's fine," he whispered to her.  
Then he noticed that the computer was still on, and that there was a message. Cole opened it.  
_"I'm sorry. But I feel I have to do this. Mom: Whatever happens, stick to your oath! Dad: Don't let her go! Cole: Never forget what I told you! And Bianca: My love, I'll be there on time and you'll be Mrs. Halliwell! - I'm sorry. Chris"  
_After they had read the lines, Bianca began to cry stronger. Cole sighed. He knew what this message meant, which Chris's plan was... He swallowed. He was sure: Chris wanted to give his life for Paige and for his mom. And he, Cole, should make sure that Wyatt would bring him back from wherever.  
He hugged Bianca again. She was crying on his shoulder so badly that it hurt him deep inside his soul. "He will come back," he whispered, "I'm sure he will."  
Then, another message arrived. From the witchhelp address. Cole opened it, still holding Bianca with his other arm.  
_"DON'T DO IT CHRIS! DON'T! They want not only your life... Zankou wants your powers!"  
_"Oh God," Cole muttered. 'That's something you didn't know, Chris. Something that could spoil your plan!' he thought.  
"Bianca," he said to her, "I know that's hard, but you have to go back to the library and find that demon in the books... We need to!" Cole commanded. Bianca swallowed still sobbing. Cole looked into her sad eyes: "Girl, we need to!"  
She nodded and went slowly out of the room. Cole replied to the last e-mail.  
_"He's gone. We need your help; we need it so badly... PLEASE HELP HIM! Cole." _

°°°°°°°°°°

"CHRIS!" yelled Paige with anger and fear.  
Chris didn't pay attention to his aunt. He looked into the eyes of the demon. "Nice to meet you again, Zankou," he said.  
The demon narrowed his eyes. Chris noticed that and smiled: "Oh, I forgot, you can't remember... But therefore... maybe I should warn you... in about 20 years I will save your ass from being burnt by my older brother... I don't know what will happen to him and to you when you kill me..." That was a lie. That demon had never been so stupid to step into Wyatt's way, but if he believed him...  
Zankou frowned and then he smiled: "I don't want to kill you; I only want your powers and those from the unborn child. I will take them inside, so that the greater power which will appear when he's born, appears in me!" He laughed loudly.  
Chris swallowed. That was really not part of his plan. And suddenly he remembered Wyatt's words again. _"Never go alone"_ and _"he will take your powers"_. Is it all that starting now just a little earlier? Will this be his end?  
"No, you have to kill him; he and his unborn version are too dangerous!" one of the other demons yelled.  
Chris noticed them for the first time. "Seems you have something to discuss with your little helpers," he replied to the demon, trying to look still strong, even if he wasn't anymore.  
But Zankou was completely unimpressed. He just waved his hand and all the little green demons ended up in ashes.  
"And now to you," he said and went a little closer to Chris.  
"Let Paige go," Chris said back.  
Zankou smiled and waved his hand again. Paige disappeared. "She's home," he said and put out a little potion-bottle. "Drink this," he ordered.  
"Never" Chris replied. And the next thing he noticed was that he had crashed against the wall.

°°°°°°°°°°

Bianca went into the library; she looked very pale, too pale. Her eyes were red, she was still crying. Victor rose to offer her his hand. But she just looked at them, at Piper. "He's gone... Zankou will kill him if we don't find any..." she whispered. Then she broke down. She fall down into Victor's arms unconscious.  
"Oh my God," he said while placing her softly on the ground. "LEO!" he yelled, while Piper was too shocked to move.

°°°°°°°°°°

'LEO!' He stopped mixing ingredients in the kitchen, and raised his head, alerted: "Victor's calling, something's wrong in the school."  
Steve looked at him worried. "Should I go with you?" he asked.  
The Elder shook his head: "No, you go to the attic with that demon, keep an eye on her... or him. I'll see what's happening in the school."  
Steve nodded as he saw Leo's orbs. And just after that, he heard a noise upstairs. And a yell. The young witch hastened to go upstairs again.

°°°°°°°°°°

"O.k..." Phoebe had said after taking a short glance at the sheet of paper with the short note. "How did it get here anyway? Didn't any demon bring it? And how did you find it?"  
Tom didn't wait for Prue's answer, but he tried to shimmer down, in search for Steve and Leo, when a strong hand grabbed his neck.  
Prue had disappeared and reappeared just behind the boy and now she was not a Halliwell anymore. On the contrary, Phoebe and Nicki could see the skinny and pale green demon he really was.  
"Fine, sister..." he said mockingly, with his real voice, "I see you don't trust me now... What a pity. We could have got on very well, but..." He suddenly noticed the intentions of Nicki, who was about to grab an athame from the table next to her: "No... don't try, or he'll die." From his wrist, a pointed piece of metal emerged, threatening with cutting the boy's neck.  
Phoebe and Nicki stared at them nervously, pondering what to do. Should they call Leo or Steve? No way. Whatever they did, it'd only gain a cut on Tom's neck.  
'Damn it, Tom, shimmer!' thought Nicki, wishing she had that sort of connection that Steve had with him. But she didn't...  
The demon smirked: "Maybe I can take this little witch to Zankou... Together with Paige he'll make a great bait for Chris and Piper."  
Suddenly, a voice interrupted them, even before the shape of its owner was made evident in the middle of white bluish orbs: "You bitch! She's not Prue, or she's betrayed us!" The demon turned his head surprised.  
"Paige!" exclaimed Nicki and Phoebe at the same time.  
At that very moment, a very scared Tom reacted and shimmered away from the grisp of his captor.  
Paige rematerialised behind the demon. "Ooops, I see you've already been informed..." she said, seeing how Phoebe kicked him.  
Steve appeared at the door just to see the demon fall backwards. Paige looked around in search for something to end with his life, but she couldn't find anything.  
The demon stood up slowly and started to shimmer, maybe to get any of them again. But suddenly, Steve threw a potion at him. They all thought he had been killed, but the demon was only surrounded by a strong light for a couple of seconds, and then he regained his normal presence. He smiled.  
"You don't know how to vanquish me... how did you even try?" he asked.  
Phoebe, Paige, Tom and Nicki stepped backwards, looking from the demon to Steve very confused, but Steve just smiled back at the ex-faked Prue.  
Suddenly he tried to get his pointed artefact from the wrist, but nothing happened. Then, he turned confused to the others, and tried to shimmer... Nothing again.  
"Yep, you're right, buddy..." Steve said in a casual tone, approaching him, "Leo and I didn't know how to vanquish you... But we knew how to take your powers away." He hit him on the face, and the demon fell down. "And now you're gonna tell us where Zankou is..."  
The others in the attic jumped out of happiness. That meant they were all safe!  
But Paige kept silent and somber.  
"What's up, baby? You're safe, we're gonna win the war!" Phoebe exclaimed. But before her sister could answer, she realised that something was wrong: "How did you escape, Paige?"  
She shook her head: "Chris... he traded himself... for me." The demon on the floor was the only one smiling out of happiness this time.

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris stood up, in a lot of pain, and made the attempt to orb away. That was a silly thing to do... He just crashed his body against a forcefield that Zankou had just raised in the entire cave.  
"Good try, man... But this is also very clever isn't it? A forcefield made by myself... You can orb in, but not out. And I can shimmer in and out. Like a big dreamcatcher; only that in this case, the cobweb traps whitelighters, and lets demons pass through the feathers..." He approached his victim, smirking: "Now, drink."  
"I won't..." Chris repeated, "I won't give you my powers..."  
Zankou grabbed his neck strongly: "As you like... I can force you to drink this." He pushed his body against the wall, and pressed his jaws, to oblige him open his mouth.  
But Chris kept it clenched tightly, and struggled to breathe through the nose or escape his grip. Finally he orbed to another part in the cave, and started to breathe heavily.  
Zankou laughed: "Come on... Don't make me chain you as I did with your aunt! You whitelighters and Elders can be really bothering..."  
"You'll not get anything from me, you need both of us, but you won't get the baby. Without him... there's nothing you can do."  
"Oh... don't worry about that, boy... All in good time. I'll get your mommy too. Meanwhile..." he started to pace around him, "I was thinking about having a stag party here, to kill time... Your last night as a bachelor... Oops, almost day, soon, and you didn't have your party? Come on, let's drink a toast, you first." He squatted by Chris's side, and stretched his arm to give him the drink, kindly. "Here's to the bride and groom... " he recited.  
Chris cast a glance filled with hatred at him: "You won't get what you want, I swear."  
And he hit his hand, making the potion fall on the floor. With a little soft clink the little bottle broke into pieces and the liquid was spread around on the ground. Chris smiled.  
Zankou was really angry now and beat th Elder-witch in his face making him fly backwards to the ground.  
Chris tried to get up again. His jaw hurt. He tasted blood. 'Fight, you have to fight,' he thought. As soon he rose to a sitting position, Zankou hit him again. And then the demon threw him through the cave.  
Chris yelled in pain. But he knew he wasn't allowed to give up.  
Somehow he managed to get back on his feet. In the same second he threw out a flash of energy to Zankou. But the demon just caught it with his hand as he was absorbing it. Chris looked at him shocked. Orbing didn't work, flashes didn't work... what should he do now?  
Zankou smiled evilly. Then he waved his hand and threw the energy flash back to Chris. It hit him on his chest taking his breath away. Chris struggled and fell down to the ground again.  
There he lay, breathing heavily now, having only one thing in mind... The most important thing he had to fight for. "Bianca," he whispered. At this moment he wished he had never left her.

°°°°°°°°°°

Leo had orbed to the schoollibrary, where he found Victor sitting by Bianca who was still unconscious. "What happened?" he asked while he knelt down next to her.  
"She broke down," Victor just said. Then he looked at his son-in-law while he was trying to heal her. "Chris is gone," he said slowly.  
"What?" Leo exclaimed. For a moment he stopped the healing and just looked at him. Victor just nodded.  
Leo went on with the healing, but it didn't work. "She isn't hurt or something," he explained, "I can't help her. I think it's from her pregnancy and the sorrow. She just needs a rest."  
Victor nodded again. Then he pointed at Piper: "Maybe you can help her."  
Leo went over to his wife. She was sitting on the sofa just looking into the nothingness.  
"Piper?" the Elder asked while he sat down next to her.  
"He's gone," she muttered.  
Leo put his arm around her, watching how Victor put a pillow under Bianca's head while little Wyatt was playing with his toys. Then he turned to Piper again.  
"He's alright, I'm sure... you know him. And we'll find a way to help him," he whispered softly.  
"He's gone," Piper muttered again and then she started to cry.  
Leo tried to make her calm down, but it seemed to be impossible.  
Victor sighed: "Don't worry about them... all the trouble... and then the hormone-thing... As you said, it's all a little too much for them."  
Leo nodded, but he felt sorrow anyway.  
"Chris, I'm here," Bianca whispered suddenly.

°°°°°°°°°°

Cole sat still in the office, staring at the screen. There was no reply, no answer. He sighed and stood up. He was about to leave the room, but then he heard the "new-message-beep" and went back.  
There it was: an e-mail from the witchhelp-adress. He opened it and read.  
_"One of my agents is on the way to do all he can do to save him. We know that the world needs him. We do everything we can... B."  
_"B?" Cole asked himself. His mind was working hard. Then an idea crossed his thoughts. 'Could that be possible?' Could it be that a demon would help a witch... 'Sure,' he answered himself. He, on his own, had helped the sisters a lot of times, he had even been a demon.  
"Belthazor," he whispered.  
He looked at the message again. Then he deleted it. After that was finished he sent an e-mail back.  
_"Hello brother. Your secret is safe, I will not tell them who you are. But please, help Chris quickly as I would do!"  
_He pressed the send button, shut down the computer and went back to the library.

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris hit the wall again. Like a wet towel, he was sliding down to the ground. He saw how Zankou pulled another potion-bottle out of a pocket of his jacket. Smiling he went a little closer.  
"Bianca," Chris whispered again, running out of energy.  
"Chris, I'm here," he heard her sweet voice. But that couldn't be true, she was at the school.  
"I'm here, honey." Chris looked into the direction from where the voice came.  
There she was, it was really her. Or better... it was a kind of ghost. Chris could see her shape, her eyes, her smile, but he could also see through her. She wasn't real but she was there. "I'm going to lose my mind," Chris said suddenly and laughed.  
Zankou looked at him confused. 'What was going on?' he thought. But then he decided to ignore it... 'Surely just a human behaviour.'  
"Chris, you have to fight!" Bianca went on. He looked at her again. "You have to fight for me," she went on, "for us...!" With those last words she opened her right hand and a light appeared. And the light turned to the shape of a small body... the body of a girl of maybe five years. She was cute. She looked like Bianca in a way. But her skin was lighter and her eyes were green.  
"Hope?" Chris whispered with a sad smile.  
The little girl waved his hand to him.  
Zankou was now right in front of him. "Will you now drink?" he asked, while he offered him a new little bottle.  
Chris looked at the bottle. Then he narrowed his eyes. "Never!" he yelled and threw Zankou telekinetically through his cave.

_

* * *

(Chapter 8 written by Belén and Chrissy.W.x)_


	9. Chapter 9

**A Charmed Story - Part Four:  
Marriage with Obstacles  
Chapter 9**

"So who are you and what do you want from them?" Steve asked coldly. Then, when there was no response, he said telepathically to Tom: 'Do it'.  
All of a sudden, Tom raised his hand and the demon's arm froze turning into ice. The man screamed in agony.  
Nicki pressed Steve's hand and glanced at the man on the floor: "I warn you, it's better if you talk. My friends can be very persuasive..."  
"The... the prophecy..." Gabriel mumbled, almost crying. The ice spread a little bit more, up to his shoulder. "Wait! Wait... I'm talking... I'm talking..."  
The three teens folded their arms impatiently waiting for the answer. Immediately after Steve had taken his powers away, Phoebe had said that they should stay in the manor, getting answers from the prisoner, and trying to discover who they exactly were. Meanwhile, she and Paige orbed back to the school, to tell the rest of the family that Paige was fine and all what she knew about Zankou. Some of them should go as soon as possible to his lair, to stop him.

°°°°°°°°°°

"Are you fine, Bianca?" a very concerned Victor asked, caressing her hair.  
"Hush..." Leo was watching the girl who seemed to be like in a trance.  
"What's she doing?" Victor whispered. Piper was still sobbing in Leo's arms.  
"I don't know..." he frowned, "but just don't disturb her." Leo somehow knew what was going on, although he couldn't really understand it very well. But once he had been told that when you really love one person, there's a bond that joins you to him or her forever. And when there's danger implied... somehow... they are able to reach each other 'even in the end of the world. 'Even in death...' He said to himself. A very strong bond. Maybe Bianca had been able to send some message to Chris. He wanted to believe that.  
But at that moment, Cole entered the library, and frowned at the sight of Bianca. He was going to say something, when the look of Leo stopped him. He just nodded, and whispered: "Is she fine... has she... has she told you?"  
Leo and Victor nodded, and Cole just repeated the gesture, and went to Wyatt. He sat by his side, and took some books, to look for information about how to kill that Zankou... But he wanted to do so by Wyatt's side. Just in case he needed him.  
Suddenly, Paige and Phoebe orbed in: "Piper, Leo! Paige is back, but they got Chris. We managed to trap the demon that was pretending to be Prue and..."  
Leo made a signal that they should lower their voices, but it was too late. They had already awakened Bianca abruptly from her trance.  
Now she stared at them with horror in her eyes: "They're hurting him, he needs us!"  
Piper, who had been quiet up to that moment, muttered: "No, please... No... Don't let this become true..."

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris stood up and stumbled towards Zankou. He wanted to crash the bottle of the potion that had fallen from his hand and out of his reach.  
But Zankou stood up quickly and stared at him, with his eyes black as the coal: "You've wasted my patience, you..."  
Chris stepped back, seeing how he took the bottle from the floor. When Zankou squatted to perform that action, he saw her... Piper, his mom. She was behind the demon, smiling at him.  
Chris turned paler than he already was. "No, mom..." he muttered. She made a gesture as if she was going to blow him up, but it didn't work.  
Zankou turned to see who else was there. "Gee... The one I wanted," he smirked.  
Chris felt his heart sinking. He had had the hope that she was another kind of vision, something that only he could see.  
"I told you she'd come," the demon told Chris.  
"Leave her alone!" he cried desperate. That was exactly what he had wanted to stop.  
Zankou, when realising that what Chris feared the most was precisely that his mother suffered, turned to her: "Let's start with you, then... You'll drink this potion, and teach your little brat what he should be doing, if he doesn't want you to suffer."  
Piper looked at Chris sadly, and took it: "I'm sorry, Chris... I don't want that anything happens to you. I need you alive."  
"Nooo!" Chris yelled.  
He attempted to throw the bottle to the floor with his telekinetic power, but Zankou grabbed his arm and bent it painfully. Chris moaned.  
"Just look at what she does..."  
"Mom, you swore you would keep to our deal..." he had tears on his cheeks, but Piper didn't even answer to him. She just finished drinking and smiled.  
"Your turn..." said Zankou, offering him a new bottle.  
He softened his pressure, so that Chris could take it, but the boy didn't move. He was looking at his mother, unbelieving. What had she just done? And she was smiling...That didn't fit her vision at all, had she really tried to change it? But there was something weird about her.  
He turned to stare at the bottle that was being offered to him... None of them realised that there was someone else observing the scene, and maybe doing something else about it, from behind the entrance to the lair.

°°°°°°°°°°

Belthazor was looking at the screen. That witch, Julian... He didn't know how much power he really had. Not magical power perhaps. But this, his magic, combined with his true power... his knowledge about computers, was incredible. He smiled.  
'Don't worry, brother... He'll be safe, I promise,' he said to himself. He was, looking at the screen... at the image of Piper that Julian had created right before he left. He was going there, alright, he had said. But he'd use his own methods... Virtual reality combined with a little magic.

°°°°°°°°°°

Tom moved his hand, an the ice turned back a little.  
"Now talk," Steve said.  
Gabriel was looking at him with fear. He was trapped, alone, without any power to defend himself. He didn't want to die, of course. So he talked.  
"Our order... We... we have to save the world, we promised. We have to save the world from those two lives which will collide... and which will create the greatest power the world has ever seen."  
"Where is he now?" Tom asked.  
The demon shrugged: "Don't know... In the cave of Zankou, I think."  
"Do you know how to vanquish Zankou?" The demon just shook his head.  
"Why do you think it's them, the prophecy is talking about?" Nicki asked.  
"Because of... the signs..." he muttered.  
"And what kind of power will it be?" Steve asked.  
The demon just looked at them, but said nothing.  
'Tom...' said Steve telepathically.  
Tom moved his hand again and the ice grew up a little more. It was close to his lungs. "A little more and you'll die," Tom remarked.  
"No... no..." muttered Gabriel.  
"Then talk!" Steve yelled.  
"We... we don't know... exactly... We only know that their power is stronger than anything else this world has ever seen... And that it will destroy the world..." he answered.  
"The Underworld?" Nicki asked.  
The demon shook his head: "No... The whole world."  
"You're lying!" Nicki yelled.  
Gabriel smiled evily: "Sure?"  
Nicki was about to run over to him and beat him in frustration. But Steve stopped her. He looked at Tom, who nodded. Then, the latter made the demon freeze completely and then shimmered him away.  
Nicki was looking at Steve with sorrow: "What if it's true?" She couldn't believe it, but... what if that whole time-travel-thing finally made the world collapse?  
"It isn't... It can't be..." Steve answered hugging her.  
"How can you be so sure?"  
Steve smiled: "Well... because I discovered a new power a few weeks ago... I can see if someone is lying... and he was, at least at your last question..."  
Nicki looked at him confused.  
"Look," he explained, "I can hardly explain it myself, it's just... it's just that I know it... And this demon... he was definitely lying about the last question."  
She smiled: "You surprise me everyday."  
At that moment Tom returned: "Come on, let's go back to the others."  
Nicki and Steve nodded and took his hands.

°°°°°°°°°°

"Piper please, try to relax o.k.?" I'm sure he'll be fine," Phoebe was trying to calm down her sister.  
"She's right," Victor added, "you're not stressing only yourself... that will also have an influence on the little one." Piper sobbed. Her nerves were completely down.  
Meanwhile, Cole sat down next to Bianca. "Are you o.k.?" he asked. She nodded weakly. There was still the fear in her eyes.  
"What have you seen?" Leo asked, while Paige was also sitting down, taking little Wyatt in her arms.  
Bianca just shrugged: "I've seen him in a cave, very dark. He tried to orb out but he couldn't. And I saw Zankou who wants him to drink that potion... Who hurt him..." Again she started to cry and Victor hugged her.  
Cole was observing her with a little confusion. He had known her as a strong and powerful woman, but since she was pregnant she was so emotional and so vulnerable. He felt so sorry for her.  
Suddenly, the air began to wave in the middle of the room. Tom, Steve and Nicki shimmered in.  
"Have you found out something?" Paige asked.  
Steve shook his head: "Nothing new. Only about that prophecy and that they want to kill them and so on..."  
"And now?" Cole asked. No one said a word. They had no idea about how to go on. It was pointless... hopeless... There was nothing they could do as long as they didn't know how to vanquish that bastard.  
Paige was watching Wyatt. She wished his older version would be there... She would have asked him for another hint. He had left a lot of riddles in the book, but nothing useful for this time... this time, when they really needed one.  
Wyatt was giggling. Surely he had no idea about what was going on around him. Suddenly, he orbed one of the books into his hands and showed it to Paige. "Tale... Tale.." he said.  
Paige smiled: "No, Wyatt, that is not for you." She took the book and put it away.  
But only a second later, Wyatt orbed it back into his hands.  
Cole smiled: "He will not give up... Just open it and invent a story for him..."  
Paige sighed. Then she opened a page somewhere in the middle and was about to start. But then she stooped. "Oh my God," she whispered.  
"What?" asked the others at the same time.  
Paige turned the book around to show them the entry. It was about Zankou!  
Wyatt's giggling was the only thing heard in the middle of the silence that involved the whole library. "Tale!" he said once again, clapping his hands happily.  
The sisters, Bianca, Leo and the teens, all at once, rushed to surround Paige and the book, and take a glance at it, as Victor, without keeping his eyes from Cole's, went to little Wyatt and took him away from the others.  
Cole smiled and shrugged: "I told you... he's really clever. And protective."  
Victor was shocked with the little child and stared at him in awe. The boy tittered and started to babble some incoherent words, because of the excitement. Cole stood up and approached the man: "Come here... I'll tell him a story. He deserves it." He winked. Victor nodded, and both men, together with the child, went aside, to a sofa, with the hope that the others would find out something soon.

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris kept staring at the bottle for a while, and then at his mother. It was so weird... But he felt too sick already to keep on thinking. He couldn't give up, he had promised... But why had she drunk it? It made it even more difficult...  
"Drink," Zankou insisted threateningly, "drink or I'll kill her." And he grabbed her arm.  
Piper looked at his very distressed son, and said softly: "Your mother will be fine, sweetie... and your little self too..." She pointed to her womb, and smiled.  
Zankou also smirked and said: "You heard that? A wise woman, your mommy..."  
Chris was about to say something when he looked at her womb and realised... that suddenly she wasn't pregnant, anymore! He opened his eyes widely. Had his little self... died? But how could Piper be so calm? And she had said 'your mother will be fine...' Not 'I'll be fine.' He suddenly had a weird feeling and looked at his side.  
Zankou was too busy watching his movements as to realise... that there was someone else's there, nodding.  
Then Chris smiled, and took a decision. He grabbed the bottle with potion and dropped the content in his mouth before the shocked and pleased stare of the demon, and a smiley Piper. Then Chris threw the bottle to the floor, and shivered a little bit.  
"Done..." he muttered almost inaudibly.  
Zankou grinned and took his hand and Piper's, closing his eyes, waiting. He recited some verses in an unknown language. Chris fought to get released from his grip, but he was tightly grabbed. However, Piper didn't seem to worry...  
And after some seconds, nothing happened. Zankou opened his eyes and looked at both of them, surprised: "What the hell...?"  
Suddenly, Piper disappeared, Chris smiled, bent over himself and threw all the content of the potion on Zankou's feet.  
"What?" He was really furious now...  
"Was that all the potion you had, bastard?"  
Zankou raised his leg to kick him on his face, but Chris orbed to the other side of the cave, where the man was, and covered him with his body.  
"I'll make more, stupid witch. You won't escape from here, you know? You're only delaying... Keep on orbing while I make the potion!" Zankou cried.  
Behind Chris, the man whispered: "I'm the messenger of the witchhelper. I'm visible only for you now... I gained you some more time, buddy. Now I need to go, but resist. Help is coming." Then he disappeared as Chris nodded.  
He wanted to ask who that helper was, but...

°°°°°°°°°°

Paige read over all the information on the page about Zankou. She read that this demon had been a very powerful one until the source of all evil destroyed him in a terrible battle for the control of the Underworld. She also read that he had been resurrected several times, and each time, his power had grown.  
"How do we destroy him?" asked Bianca impatiently.  
"Here it is..." answered Paige, excited. "Look, Zankou cannot be destroyed with simple magic. A bigger magic is needed. The conjunction of big powers. No vanquishing potion, only a spell. This doesn't mean that he won't be back. Until now, everything has been tried, but he always comes back from death."  
Piper sighed. Well... we have the power of three... but..."  
"No, "Phoebe exclaimed, "you will not go down there!"  
"But you will need her," Leo remarked. Piper was surprised that he was on her side this time...  
"But we still don't know if this is enough..." Paige muttered.  
"You have a lot more power," Bianca rose to speak, "I can cast spells too, same as Chris who will be with us, I'm sure." 'He has to be there,' she thought.  
"And we're also in," Steve said, looking at Tom and Nicki, who nodded. Then, the latter added: "Yeah, you know how powerful the boys are."  
"I'll help you, too," another voice said. All heads turned around to the door, where the 'whitchhelper's' assistant stood and smiled sadly. "By they way," he said, "you can call me Julian."

°°°°°°°°°°

Belthazor was pacing around in front of the monitor. He was a little tired, but he had to watch over that boy. Chris was sitting in a corner of that cave, his arms around his legs.  
That witch Julian was very helpful. He had installed a little camera, when he was there. Zankou didn't notice that. Now Belthazor was able to have a look on the scene.  
He sighed. He wished he could do more for that boy. He admired him in a way. He knew what he had done, what he had given up, just to save the world... not only the humans' world... also his world. If it had been necessary, that boy would have given his own life for that... Belthazor sighed again.  
Then he thought about Julian again, his assistant... He had given him some potions and sent him to the sisters to join them for the moment. Belthazor hoped that those potions would help a little. He hoped that his assistant would come back safe... Julian... his friend.

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris was staring into the darkness. Zankou had left him for a while; surely he was preparing some new potion.  
He sighed. His back hurt, his jaw hurt, his arm hurt... But he didn't care about all that.  
His mind was wandering around that vision he had had. 'Was it a vision?' He thought about what his mother had said about his little self. 'Was that my first own vision? Am I able to have those visions?' He sighed again.  
'Or was it Bianca?' Had it been her, the one who contacted him, to help him?  
He had never heard before that Phoenixes were able to do something like that.  
Whatever it had been, it had helped him. He had really been about to give up, but then... To see his "wife-to-be-in-a-few-hours"... his daughter... that had made him fight again.  
"Hope," he whispered smiling. 'I will have a daughter,' he thought. And that thought made him smile. 'My daughter!' He sighed again.  
Then, another thought crossed his mind. 'Could that be possible?' he thought frowning. 'Can it be her that sent those pictures to me?' No one knew that this child would be a girl. It was too soon for that. Even Bianca wasn't sure about it. So, who else could know that, apart from herself...  
He smiled again. 'I will have a daughter with some interesting powers,' he thought. "You will be one of the best witches in the world," he whispered, "and I'll teach you everything I know... I swear... I'll be there for you." He sighed again. "I'll get through this... for you."  
He smiled. His daughter had given him his strength back. 'You are already the greatest witch in the world.'  
Then, he heard some steps. Chris raised his head.  
"It's high time you drink this," Zankou said, suddenly grabbing his hurting jaw again.  
Chris tried to fight, he struggled to kick him, or punch him, and then he only tried to push him away. He didn't answer just because he didn't want to open his mouth.  
"I wasn't gonna kill you, stupid boy... But now, you gained it. The order of Sorix will love to have you... they won't even ask if you still have your powers..."  
Chris felt how Zankou raised him on his feet and then over the ground a little bit. He grabbed the arm whose hand was pressing his neck. He wouldn't drink... Where was the help that the man had promised? He wouldn't drink... He fought back, and even tried to make the bottle fall with his telekinesis, but the lack of air was too much for his strength.  
Zankou smirked: "Open your little mouth... You need air..."  
Chris knew that even if he opened it, he wouldn't get that air, so he clenched his teeth stubbornly, as he saw the bottle approaching.  
Then, faster than a ray, the bottle exploded before his eyes and the liquid was spilled on the floor, and on their clothes.  
Zankou turned his head towards his right side, but he didn't let go off Chris, so he couldn't see who had done that... However, he heard them...  
"Don't even try that again. NEVER!" It was Piper's voice; her hands were still up, from her attack.  
"No one messes up with our family," an angry Paige continued.  
"And no one dares to spoil my wedding!" This was Bianca!  
Chris struggled to get free from the claw that hurt his neck and jaws, but it was useless, he was going to lose his consciousness. All of a sudden, a very shocked Zankou found himself hit by something cold which made him fly backwards, and Chris fell down to the floor.  
"And... just for you to know... ugly demon: This family has also lots of friends who want to go to that wedding," Nicki was smiling at the surprised Zankou, while Tom lowered his hand.  
Chris raised his head, sweating and breathing heavily, but he smiled at the sight of so many beloved people there. Bianca didn't wait for anything else. She ran towards Chris and hugged him strongly, almost crying. "I told you not to celebrate any wild party before our wedding, honey..." she said, sobbing. Chris felt like laughing in spite of his pain.  
Meanwhile, a very grave and determined Piper, the 'warrior', not the 'mother', was leading the group.  
Zankou stood up slowly, pondering his situation, eyeing his enemy.  
"Don't try," repeated Piper. "Tom!" Tom nodded and started to freeze Zankou's legs.  
The demon raised his eyebrows, surprised, but then he burst out laughing, as all the ice broke into thousands of little pieces: "Wow… Impressing..." He walked towards them, slowly: "Do you really think I was one of those inept demons you can vanquish with a ballet dancer movement of your hands?"  
Chris and Bianca joined the others. Julian was also there, behind them all, and cast a reassuring look at Chris, who smiled back at him, thankful. Who the hell was the one who was behind all that?  
At that moment, Zankou threw an energy ball at them, but Paige orbed it back so that it hit the demon.  
When Zankou rose after that, Julian wasn't there... Or wasn't visible... at least. The demon raised his hand to make his movement, furious: "This isn't a fair fight, people... you're too many..." He smirked.  
"We're all one, man... All for one and one for all," Steve said, grinning. All of them, except Chris maybe, were smiling...  
Zankou had a bad feeling about it… Where was the other man? The coloured witch?  
Chris turned his head around, even if it hurt. But he couldn't see the stranger, the helper. He narrowed his eyes.  
Then he turned to Bianca: "Which is the plan?"  
"We have a spell," she whispered to his ear. He nodded weakly, because every move hurt him a lot.  
Suddenly Zankou flew through the air again.  
Nicki looked surprised: "Who was that?" Then Julian reappeared next to Zankou smiling at them.  
"I know who you are, now I remember you." the demon said to him, "and if they find out, they will kill you."  
Julian swallowed. Then he disappeared again while Zankou was attacking him with some energy balls.  
Julian again reappeared behind the other witches. "The spell," he whispered.  
Nicki, Paige and Bianca pulled out little sheets of paper, while Tom was trying to freeze Zankou again. Together they read.  
_"Many deaths you have gone through  
you, the demon called Zankou..."  
_"Stop, stop, STOP!" Paige yelled suddenly, interrupting the others. Then, she pointed at the empty cave: "He's gone!"  
Chris sighed; then, he broke down. It had been all a too much. His energy was gone, he just wanted to sleep.  
"Oh my God, Chris," Bianca exclaimed kneeling down next to him. "Honey, are you o.k.?" she asked caressing his cheek.  
Chris shook his head softly. He felt terrible. He wasn't able to move. He only wanted to sleep.  
"Where is he gone?" Paige asked meanwhile.  
Julian cleared his throat: "The only place where he could go is the temple of the Sorix. There are not many of them left. Zankou killed most of them. But the rest doesn't know."  
"So we should go there and end this," Nicki replied  
Piper was now next to Chris, too. "We have to bring him to Leo," she said. Then she looked at his son: "The next time, you do as I say, alright? No more solo efforts!"  
Chris nodded; then he closed his eyes. His breath was weak but consistent. He was just tired.  
"Hope," Chris whispered.  
Bianca frowned. Then she turned to Steve: "You come with us. With your connection to Tom we can return to the others easily."  
Steve nodded and went over to her. Then he turned to Piper: "You should come with us!"  
Piper shook her head: "No, my place is here. No one will hurt me, I swear... Go and let Leo heal him, and then come back to us." Steve and Bianca nodded; then they shimmered out.  
Piper stood up and looked at the others: "So where is that temple?"  
Julian sighed: "That is a little bit difficult to say."

_

* * *

(Chapter 9 written by Belén and Chrissy.W.x)_


	10. Chapter 10

**A Charmed Story - Part Four:  
Marriage with Obstacles  
Chapter 10**

Belthazor had been following the sequence of all the events that took place in Zankou's lair thanks to the computers and the camera installed in that cave. He had been clenching his fist when he saw how the demon was about to achieve his purpose; and he had even started to shimmer when the bottle exploded... They had arrived... and he sighed, relieved. But then, something else happened: when they were telling the spell, Zankou just disappeared.  
"Damn it!" he roared.  
He kept pensive for a while... what should he do? Just wait? But how would he control the situation now, without Julian? Something was clear... he couldn't show himself. He had done enough by telling Cole.

°°°°°°°°°°

"So..." Phoebe was saying, minutes after the others went back to the school, and still trying to assimilate what Julian had just explained, "according to you... we only have to... find the hidden door, which seems to be invisible somewhere down here... then cross a very dangerous bridge that hangs over a lava river... afterwards, getting along a wild rainforest in which only God knows what we'll find, and finally.. There we are, the temple!"  
Julian nodded slowly and Piper just muttered: "A true cliche... Indiana Jones cliche, actually..."  
"And..., well, Julian... I was wondering... maybe this is a stupid question, but... Can't we just orb right there?" Paige asked, rolling her eyes impatient.  
The man shook his head: " Guess what would happen if they just sense us orbing? That'd be suicidal!"  
"Well... what about shimmering? I shimmer..." a very proud Tom suggested.  
"Yeah, he's right..." Nicki supported the idea.  
"No he's not. Look... I said it was difficult. They're like a cult. O.k., they're demons, but theirs is a cult, and it has all the inconveniences that cults show... I mean, for strangers: Which includes a system of alarms whenever a stranger demon shimmers in, let alone a stranger whitelighter orbing, or a stranger witch/demon... whatever he or she is doing."  
Phoebe sighed impatient: "So what do we do, then? You only said what we can't do, hell! And we've got a wedding to celebrate..."  
Julian swallowed: "O.k., sorry... I'm doing as much as I can... And I actually said what you need to do..."  
"Yeah, yeah, yeah..." Piper said tiredly, "the bridge, the doors, the rainforest... But it'll take us a long time, won't it?"  
"I am still for shimmering," Tom insisted.  
They all kept silent for a while. Finally Nicki asked: "Isn't there any way to stop those alarms, to... cheat them?"  
Piper nodded: "Hey... Paige can glamour and you can turn invisible... You two could go there, I guess. Paige would turn into one of those demons; moreover, you saw them, didn't you?"  
Paige nodded: "Yes, but..."  
"You'd glamour as one of those bastards... Julian would go with you, invisible."  
"And what do they do, orb right there?" a very pissed off Phoebe intervened.  
"No..." Tom was now grinning widely, "they'll shimmer." All the faces turned to him. Man, the boy was persistent.  
But Julian frowned: "Well, I'm not sure, the alarms... But maybe it could work."  
"What?" Paige asked, completely lost. "He CAN'T come, he'll be caught! And we will, too!"  
"Not exactly..." Tom and Julian crossed their looks and winked at each other. "He's been already caught... so he'll be able to enter."  
Nicki smiled: "If no one has a better idea, I vote for that."  
Paige and Phoebe weren't so sure yet.

°°°°°°°°°°

Leo rose when Bianca, Steve and Chris shimmered in, same as the others.  
"Is he alright?" Victor asked while Leo went close to him and put his hands over his body.  
"I think he is just exhausted... mostly," Bianca answered. She knelt down next to Chris and took his hand while Leo was healing him.  
When he felt her hand in his, he turned his face to her and smiled a little: "I promised I'll be there."  
Bianca began to sob. Tears ran over her face.  
"No," Chris whispered, "don't cry, please." Chris could feel how life returned to his body. He felt better every second. When Leo finished healing, he took a deep breath.  
"Thanks, dad," he said while he sat up.  
"How do you feel?" Leo asked still worried. Chris could see that he had cried too.  
"Good, I'm alright," he answered with a little smile. Leo nodded.  
Chris turned to Bianca and kissed her. "I've seen you, down there," he said then.  
Bianca frowned: "How could you do it? I was here all the time." Also the other men looked surprised.  
Chris nodded: "I know... But Hope..."  
"Hope?" asked she, without understanding. "You whispered that also when you were broken down."  
Chris smiled and his eyes were shining. "Yeah," he said with a lot of joy in his voice. Then he touched softly her womb: "She was there, too. I think it was her who let me see you both."  
Bianca just looked at him, then at her womb and then at him again with her mouth wide open.  
"You mean your child visited you down there?" Cole asked.  
"Like an astral-projection?" Leo added. Victor just looked at him, this was all a little too much for him.  
But Chris just nodded. "Don't know how, but... Yeah, I really believe our little daughter has saved me!"  
"Unbelievable," Cole muttered.  
Then, Chris turned to Bianca again and whispered to her womb: "Thanks, little girl... I love you so much..." Bianca smiled about that, even if she didn't understand it at all.  
"So it will be a girl?" Victor asked again. Chris just nodded smiling.  
Steve had taken a seat a little offside from them. He was trying to stay connected to Tom. Now he suddenly jumped up. "I've lost them!" he yelled in panic.

°°°°°°°°°°

"So I'll have to glamour and enter with the boy as a prisoner, and Julian will also come invisible? But the alarms will go off when they perceive a strange shimmering..."  
"Yeah, they'll do, but they'll see you, Paige. Just convince them... It might be a problem or something, with the alarms failing..." Tom insisted. "Come on, that's the only chance, unless you wanna cross that river and the rainforest and all..."  
"And even so... then we'd have to enter the temple, so... the alarm problem would still be there. Or the guards," Piper muttered, thoughtful.  
Julian nodded: "Look, I can't assure you this will work, but when I'm inside, I will try to make the alarms stop working. Then you would all be given the go-ahead to entering."  
"O.k..." Phoebe sighed, "Do it. But be careful... And don't do stupid things until we all get there." The three of them nodded.  
Immediately after that, Paige had taken the shape of the demon that had faked Prue... Gabriel. Julian turned invisible, and Tom placed himself in the middle, letting Paige grab his arm strongly. "O.k..." he said, "let's go."  
Julian made him stop suddenly: "Wait! One more thing, Tom... Once we are there, the telepatic connection you have with Steve might not work..."

°°°°°°°°°°

Belthazor was still watching the screen... He mumbled something. 'How could Julian be so stupid?' he thought, 'going to the Sorix temple means suicide!'  
Again he started to pace around. Then he went back to his cave to give some orders to one of his followers. He knew it was risky to use his influence as the source in that case... If they found out... But he had no other choice.  
"Belthazor, my lord, you source of all evil," the demons made a bow when he returned a few minutes later.  
But the red demon interrupted him: "Get to the point!"  
"We have made a count... if our information is right, there are only two of the Sorix left."  
Belthazor grinned evilly: "That's good..."  
"But even if it's so... we registrated a lot of activities around the hidden door. Maybe also other demons know what's going on and want to end with them..."  
A yell of the source interrupted him.  
"Call them!" he yelled. "Stop them! We have to hold those creatures back! That's my job..." The small demon nodded and went away again.  
'It'll be the end, if these demons find the witches inside, instead of the Sorix!' he thought. 'Good that the boys are outside... But what about Julian?' Then he went over to the computer again.

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris and Leo looked at Steve, who was pale.  
"What?" Cole asked, worried.  
"I've lost him... He was there," Steve tried to explain, "He was thinking about going to a temple I think... It wasn't so clear, 'cause the distance... you know... But... Then he was away, all of a sudden he was away!" His voice was trembling.  
"The temple of the Sorix," Cole muttered.  
"What?" Leo asked.  
Cole shrugged: "That's the only real temple down there."  
"O.k, I'll go there, too," Chris said determined.  
"But the Sorix are the ones that want to see you dead, Chris!" Steve remarked.  
Chris sighed: "Yeah... But... What if they have mom?"  
Victor looked up, worried: "Can I help in some..."  
"NO!" The others exclaimed.  
Victor sighed and leaned back watching little Wyatt who had already fallen asleep.  
Cole smiled at the man next to him: "Now you know how I feel everyday." Victor grinned.  
"I come with you," Bianca said, meanwhile.  
But Chris held her back: "No, you're pregnant and I..."  
"Chris," she whispered and put her finger on his lips to stop him. Then she touched softly her womb: "Hope will protect me, as she has done before."  
Chris smiled, and then nodded.  
"Alright, can we go?" Leo asked looking at the three of them.  
"Stop!" Cole exclaimed. All heads turned to him. "Before you go, I'll go and check the mails," he explained and rose from the sofa to leave the room, "I'll be right back."  
"I'm still wondering who this person is, who sends us those messages and who sent us that Julian," Leo muttered while Cole had left the room.  
Chris looked at him: "So that is the name of that witch who helped me down there?" Leo nodded. Steve sighed. "Did you have a look on the files of the old students of the school?" Chris asked then.  
Leo looked at him a little confused: "You mean...?"  
"... maybe he's in there," Chris answered.  
Leo jumped up and left the room, too. 'I hadn't thought about that on my own,' he thought.  
Chris followed his father with his eyes, smiling. But then he sighed again.  
Bianca was caressing his cheek: "They are fine, I'm sure."  
Chris looked at her and nodded.

°°°°°°°°°°

Cole went to the office. When he had opened the door and looked at the empty room, he sighed. Then he went over to the desk and switched the computer on. After a few moments he found a new message there. He opened it.  
_"Family - three pieces there - One at home, one at the cave, one at the temple - one piece safe, two in danger."  
_Cole sighed. He printed out the message and wrote an answer.  
_"Thanks"  
_He hit the send button. Then he shut down the computer again and left the room.

°°°°°°°°°°

When Cole returned to the library, the others were looking into a big folder.  
"What's that?" he asked.  
"The folder of Julian Marsh," Leo answered.  
"You mean...? That guy was a student here?"  
Chris nodded, then he read: "...can turn himself invisible, can feel if someone is good or evil, no active power."  
"He's good in computer-stuff," Leo remarked.  
"By the way," Cole interrupted them, "we got an e-mail." He handed the print over to Chris, who read it.  
Then the Elder-witch looked up and handed it over to Leo: "So we should go first to the cave again!"  
"I'll go too..." Steve said.  
"No... I won't risk any more lives..." Chris answered.  
"Chris is right," Leo nodded. "Besides, you're our only connection with them and you should stay here, safe."  
"Precisely! Leo... if I stay here, and get the connection again, and something happens... I can't even orb there to warn you! I'm useless here..." the boy insisted.  
Cole and Victor just listened to their conversation, keeping silent not to disturb them, but at the same time trying to figure out how to help their family. Wyatt was asleep by their side, completely oblivious of what was taking place around them.  
"Leo will orb you wherever you..." Chris started to say, but he was interrupted by Leo's laugh.  
"What, you're kidding, aren't you? I'm going there too... Your mother is there, and we all have powers that can be useful." Chris wanted to say something but he was cut off. "I'm sorry, son. I'll go..."  
Steve smiled. "And I'm on it, too. You know that I can't stay here... Besides..." he almost begged this time, "I've got someone there, too... Nicki might be in danger, and..."  
Chris and Leo exchanged looks of understanding as Bianca pressed his boyfriend's arm, beggingly. "Sweetie, look at him..." she whispered, "he's just like you..."  
Chris looked at her and then turned to Steve, and sighed: "O.k... But as soon as they're safe, you'll all come back here... The less people in danger, the best for us all..."  
"Look who's talking now," Cole mocked, grinning, which gained him a disgusted glare from Chris.  
"O.k., let's go... Cole, Victor... Please... take a look at the computer from time to time... If there's any news, just call the Elders. They'll find us. We'll be right here."  
And after Leo's words, they orbed and shimmered away to Zankou's lair...

°°°°°°°°°°

Phoebe, Nicki and Piper saw how the others shimmered away.  
"And where do we go now?" the youngest of the sisters asked.  
Piper shrugged: "Maybe we should look for that hidden door? Just in case..."  
"What? I won't be the new Indiana Jones, girl... Someone's better coming here and getting me to that stupid temple..."  
Meanwhile, Nicki went to the entrance of the cave: "First of all, why don't we just get outtta here? I don't like this place I've got a bad feel... wow!" She had crashed against some kind of forcefield and fallen down several meters away from the entrance.  
"Shoot!" she exclaimed, standing up in pain.  
"What the hell was that?" Phoebe asked, staring at the entrance suspiciously.  
"Oh, no..." Piper muttered, as she helped Nicki up, "I guess someone forgot to mention it..."  
"What do you mean, Piper?" Nicki asked, getting scared.  
"I mean that... if Chris and Paige were trapped here... it's because they couldn't orb."  
"But that's nonsense, we came orbing and shimmering, and Tom has just left shimmering, and Bianca did before..." Phoebe remarked, going towards the entrance and suddenly crashing against the invisible electric wall. "Damn it!"  
"They couldn't orb out, Phoebe, nor run away... It's clear that shimmering is allowed... but not orbing. They forgot to tell us... I can't believe it!" Piper was now really angry.  
"Oh, so... that means we're trapped," Phoebe said. "Great... Just great!"  
"Well..." Nicki muttered, turning pale and taking some steps back. "If that was the only problem..."  
The sisters turn to look at the point in which Nicki had her eyes fixed. One after another, several demons were shimmering inside the lair, ugly demons, smirking at their prey...

_

* * *

(Chapter 10 written by Belén and Chrissy.W.x)_


	11. Chapter 11

**A Charmed Story - Part Four:  
Marriage with Obstacles  
Chapter 11**

Paige, Tom and Julian had shimmered straight to the very core of the temple, next to what looked like an altar, only that it had some skulls on it, looking fiercely at them. Paige startled, and Tom became pale, but the woman had her grisp tightly pressing his arm, so he couldn't step back. Julian was completely unseen.  
"Well, we're here now... what about those terrible alarms, that...?"  
No alarms, but a pointed end of a spear touched Paige's neck: "Turn around..."  
The girl did as she was told, forgetting about her new shape.  
"Gabriel?" the voice asked. "We thought you were dead... And why the hell did the alarms sound?"  
"What? I didn't hear th... Ouch!" She had just received a kick on her leg, coming from an invisible foot. The two demons were looking at her with his eyes narrowed in suspicion. "I did... didn't hear you coming men... Yeah... I'm alive. Those bastards thought they had killed me... This little crap... He thought his childish ice could hurt me." She pushed Tom ahead, and the boy fell on the floor, after slipping a bit with the humid floor. "Sorry..." she murmured.  
Tom had cast an angry glance at her, but then he looked at the demons, and turned pale. They were smirking, and pointed at his neck with their spears.  
"A good prey, isn't it? I think he's helping the Charmed Ones..." one said.  
The other kept looking at Paige: "Why the hell the alarm sounded?"  
Paige was going crazy, what alarm? She hadn't heard any! It seems that only the Sorix could...  
"Maybe because this... the prisoner, I mean, has tried to escape shimmering."  
"Shimmering?" asked the second demon. "So, is he a demon on the good side?"  
The first pressed his spear on the neck of the boy, making him tremble.  
"Yeah, yeah..." Paige noticed his fear, so she grabbed his arm and made him stand up. "But everything at a time. Now we need... Chris and Piper, I guess... And that Zankou... have you seen him? He's been killing our people..." she said suddenly remembering what had happened when he had her chained in his lair. "He's a traitor, so if he's somewhere over here..."  
The two demons looked at each other, startled.  
Although Paige and Tom didn't know, they were alone now... Julian had left, in search for the alarms and a way to stop them. He had to bring the others as soon as possible.

°°°°°°°°°°

When Leo, Chris Steve and Bianca rematerialised, some energy balls were flying through the air next to them. "Shit!" Steve exclaimed. As fast as they could they were ducking behind some barrels and rocks.  
"You've taken a nice moment to come back," Piper winked at Chris. She was hiding at the same place.  
"Are you alright mom? And my...?" he pointed at her womb.  
Piper nodded: "We're fine, thanks." Chris sighed relieved.  
"Why didn't you leave this place?" Leo asked.  
"Because that shield, or whatever kept Paige and Chris here, is still working... The only way out is shimmering," his wife explained.  
"Great," Steve mumbled from the other side..  
Chris looked at the demons. There were about a dozen of them, throwing one energy ball after another.  
Then he looked at his father: "Should we end this?"  
Leo frowned: "Chris, our powers are not made to kill demons that way. I don't..." Meanwhile, Piper was blowing up two of the demons.  
Chris just looked at Leo wonderingly: "Dad!... We don't have the time..." Leo sighed. Then he nodded.  
"Alright, up to three," Chris said, "one... two..."  
"Keep down," Leo ordered to the others.  
"THREE!" Chris yelled, and rose from their cover, same as Leo.  
Both men began to throw out energy flashes in every direction. The whole cave was covered with light for about one minute.  
Then, everything was dark again, dark and calm. No yelling, no noise of energy balls hitting the walls... nothing. Piper raised her head a little. There was no demon to see. Only some little piles of ashes let them imagine what the Elders had done.  
"Good job, dad," Chris said with a smile.  
Leo grinned: "But that will not grow into a habit, alright?" Chris nodded with a smile.  
The others looked at the Elders a little shocked and a bit fearful. Also Bianca did. That was the first time they really saw what the two men were able to do.  
Chris took his arm around her, and looked into her eyes: "Hey, what's wrong?"  
"I... for a moment..." she whispered, "it was like...well, you scared me a little..."  
Chris swallowed. He didn't mean to make her afraid of his powers: "Don't be scared, honey... Please... You know, I wouldn't hurt anyone... except demons who want to hurt my love..." Bianca nodded weakly. Then she smiled. She knew he would never hurt anyone with that huge power he had. She knew it, even if this had been so...  
"Why does it seem to me that you and Chris would be able to destroy every evil in the world just with a wink?" Phoebe asked, while Steve was hugging Nicki lovely.  
Leo sighed: "That's halfway right... But these powers are not for destroying, they are for protection."  
Piper agreed: "And you did it very well this time..." She turned around: "But now we have to go out of here."  
The others nodded.  
Phoebe turned to Bianca: "Are you strong enough to shimmer us out, one by one? I mean... because of your pregnancy."  
Bianca shrugged: "I'll try."  
So they went a little closer to the invisible forcefield and the Phoenix started to shimmer them out, one after another.

°°°°°°°°°°

Belthazor had observed that scene too. Now he smiled. 'Impressing,' he thought. "Now I understand the Sorix... If you had a power greater than that..." he whispered.  
He frowned, thinking about that. But then, he shook his head.  
"No!" he said. 'He will not destroy you or your world,' he thought to himself, 'He had his chance... If he had wanted to, he would have done it!'  
Then a short beep came from another computer. Someone wanted to visit the source, so he flamed back to his lair.  
"Yeah," he murmured, when he arrived behind his demon-spy..  
"We have registered an alarm from the temple, my lord," the demon said.  
Belthazor nodded: "And the door, did the demons find it?"  
The other demon shook his head.  
Belthazor nodded again and moved his hand to show him that he should leave him alone again. There was a lot more to think about.

°°°°°°°°°°

"Zankou is here, yes..." one of the Sorix answered staring at her suspiciously. "But he said it had been the Charmed Ones and these damned kids that were killing our people."  
"So I guess we can start asking this boy here..." the other demon added, grabbing Tom from the collar of his shirt.  
Paige pushed him immediately and tightened her grisp on Tom's arm, causing the Sorix to look at her in surprise.  
"He's lying, evidently," she said, furiously. "I saw him killing some of our brothers, actually... I escaped from the massacre, in his lair. Right after he got the older Chris. He betrayed you... us, I mean."  
Tom cast a scolding look at Paige, since she had been about to give it all away. But whether the Sorix noticed or not, they'd never know...  
Because at that time, Zankou showed himself up. "Gee... Good disguise, witch," he whispered, as he threw her against a wall, and made Tom fly towards him. "But you don't have any idea of who you are playing with, do you?" he smirked.  
He had caught Tom, who was desperately struggling to let go off his grip, and the two remaining Sorix looked at him confused.  
Tom didn't know what to do. But Paige stood up with some difficulty and recovered her own shape. Then she told him: "Come here, Tom!" They had to escape. Their plan had failed... Her sisters hadn't been able to arrive on time.  
Suddenly, they heard a voice behind the Sorix. "Waiting for family, Paige?"

°°°°°°°°°°

Julian had run away as soon as he could, letting Paige and the boy alone. He had no other chance. He had to find the alarms and stop them. Demonic alarms... great. But he knew a lot about demons. So he knew where he should search for them. And he didn't like it... The cells of torture were really scaring and depressing. But that was the place.  
Who'd dare to go to that place...? Who'd be able to enter? He knew that only shimmering was allowed. He didn't think about it. A few minutes later, he was in the small room from where all the powers that kept the temple's magic working were controlled.  
Of course... demonic alarms were magic alarms. Nothing related to computers... But he, and only he, could destroy them. He knew that too. As well as he had known he'd be able to shimmer.  
Damn it... It had been a while since he had got those powers, but he never wanted to use them. Why did Zankou have to say that? 'If they discover who you are... they'll kill you.' But they'd discover sooner or later. He had to risk it all. He had to do that...  
So he had shimmered inside the room where the alarms were working, and he also turned them off. With a simple movement of his hand...  
Julian smirked. No active powers... a witch with no active powers... Yes, that was what he was. What he had been, and what he'd be in the future. He swore that. If he had a future, anyway. But now, he had had to do that. To save the Halliwells. To save the future.  
Now, all was settled. He only needed to warn the other sisters, and hope that they arrived on time.

°°°°°°°°°°

Once they were all outside Zankou's lair, they started to pace around, trying to find the hidden door. "There's not much time left..." murmured Phoebe.  
Nicki had been looking at Steve, still shocked by the great power displayed minutes before by Leo and Chris. She had always admired Chris... Now, she also feared him, somehow. That prophecy, that power...  
Steve swore in a loud voice: "I can't sense Tom yet! Where the hell are they?"  
Piper and Leo looked at the boy, sympathetically. "Where Tom is, you can't sense or connect with no one. Julian told us. But he had to go..." Piper explained, giving out a sigh.  
"Can't we orb there? Shimmer?" he went on asking.  
"They said it was dangerous, there are alarms and..."  
"No alarms at all," a smiley Julian was behind them. "Come on, I guess Paige and Tom are really looking forward to seeing you... You can just orb, shimmer, or whatever you like."  
He winked at Phoebe, who jumped feeling relieved: "No bridges over the lava! Yes!"

°°°°°°°°°°

Victor went on reading a little bit. Another chapter... The fifth one he had read since they had been left alone. But Wyatt was asking for another one!  
He had woken up just a few minutes after the others left, and started to ask for a tale.  
Cole had looked at Victor and then he had smiled at Wyatt: "Hey, little warrior... Tell grandpa to read that book you like so much. He'd be dying to do that."  
Victor raised an eyebrow, but Wyatt was already pulling the sleeve of his jacket, and showing him the book.  
"Hamlet?" he had asked, surprised.  
Cole grinned: "A clever child... He likes Shakespeare..."  
"You must be kidding, man..." Victor half-smiled.  
But Cole simply shrugged and lied on the sofa: "I've got a headache... I need a rest now."  
"No..." Victor said laughing. But he stopped doing so when he realised that Cole was speaking seriously, and that Wyatt was still pulling from his clothes and pointing at the book.  
With a prolonged sigh, he took the book and opened it. And he started laughing... Inside the leather covers of a Shakespearean book, someone had hidden the first part of Harry Potter.  
Cole opened his eyes and smiled at him: "Well... the lady in charge of this library says these are stupid books which only tell nonsense and teach nothing... She was determined to destroy Harry Potter, so Wyatt and I had to figure out what to do about this tragedy... and fast!"  
Victor laughed out loud: "You do really get on well."  
"In adversity... You know," Cole closed his eyes slowly...  
And now, he was even snoring.  
Victor smiled. If he had ever hated him... He couldn't do that anymore. Not after that day. He was grateful, after all, that he had had that opportunity to meet him.  
He sighed. He just wished he had the same opportunity with his grandson. Such a brave man... He looked at his watch. Time flies...  
"But Harry knew he would succeed. He turned to Hermione and Ron and..." he went on reading.

°°°°°°°°°°

The demons turned around, there they stood. Phoebe, Piper, Leo, Chris, Bianca, Nicki and Steve. And in front of them Julian, who smiled.  
The Sorix seemed to have turned into stone. When they saw Chris and Piper standing side by side they were so scared that they couldn't move.  
Zankou smiled back at the coloured witch: "You can't destroy me Julian... you need me!"  
Julian's eyes turned cold. Phoebe felt that he was desperate in a way, and sad, and also determined. It was a weird mixture of emotions.  
"I can, and I will... even if there is no way back for me," Julian answered coldly.  
Chris looked at him frowning. 'No way back? What is this about?' he thought.  
Tom, who had shimmered next to Paige, tried to freeze Zankou's feet again. But again it had no effect. But then Piper let his left foot explode, making Zankou yelling furious in pain.  
Then, Bianca went over to him. Chris wanted to stop her, but she was too fast. She used her Phoenix-powers, grasping him in his back to keep him from shimmering. "The spell!" she yelled.  
Paige ran over to the others, who pulled out the papers with the spell again. Together they read.  
_"Many deaths you have gone through  
you, the demon called Zankou.  
Now we're sending you back together,  
you will be dead, now and forever."  
_As soon as they finished, a bright light appeared in the middle of Zankou's body... and it went bigger and brighter. The witches had to shadow their eyes. The demon yelled in pain. The witches ducked. Then he exploded. The shock wave threw Bianca through the hall, same as the two Sorix.  
Chris ran over to his love. She was lying on he ground unconscious. But she was alive, and Chris could see that Hope was healing her. So he raised his head and looked for Julian. There was something he wanted to ask, but the witch was gone.  
Meanwhile the Sorix rose. The explosion had brought them back into reality. Now they were ready to fight.

°°°°°°°°°°

When Cole woke up, the only thing he heard was a soft giggling of Wyatt. Slowly he turned his head. Victor was sitting there, sleeping, the book in one arm and Wyatt in the other.  
Cole grinned, and looked at the boy: "Seems your grandpa is tired too."  
He rose and went over to them, taking up Wyatt and hugging him.  
"Oh my little friend, I love you so much!" he whispered. Wyatt was giggling again. Then Cole sighed looking at the boy: "I hope my daughter will be as wonderful as you... and even the second one... But there is still time... still time..." He sighed again. He wished Phoebe was pregnant too, but... No... not now... "You know what?" he went on. "You will be a great big brother... you will save your older-younger brother... well... he said you will." Wyatt was giggling again. "And I'm sure you will help me to raise my daughters, right? Like a great older cousin!" Cole smiled.  
"Daughters?" Victor asked with a sleepy voice and yawned.  
Cole sighed: "Good morning, Victor."  
"I thought... I mean, Chris told me that you had one daughter..." Victor went on unflinching.  
Cole sat down in front of him. "O.k.," he sighed, "you must swear that you will not tell this to any of them."  
Victor nodded.  
"When adult Wyatt was here the second time - the good version I mean - I talked with him a little. And well, he behaved as a real big mouth... He told me that in his time... Well... the time we are actually on the way to... in this time, Phoebe and me will have a second daughter. A younger one..."  
Victor nodded: "And in Chris's time that girl didn't exist."  
"Exactly." Cole sighed again: "And I don't want them to know that... I don't want Phoebe to feel like under pressure, you know."  
Victor smiled. That man was really... a good one. And surely the perfect man for his youngest daughter. He nodded.  
"Well..." he started then again, "if this adventure is over and the kids are married... well... Do you like playing golf?"  
"What?" Cole asked surprised. "Are you asking me to play golf with you?"  
Victor nodded smiling: "Yeah... That's the right sport for an old man like me." He laughed. Cole wasn't sure how to react so he smiled a little, confused.  
"I thought you and me could have a little fun together," Victor went on, "I mean... You... as my future son-in-law... and... as the only real human in this family except me..."  
Cole shook his head. Then he imagined how they both would stand together close to hole Number 18... and having fun. That was weird, so he began to laugh too.  
Cole had never imagined that he and Victor could become friends one day, but now it seemed they were on the right way...

°°°°°°°°°°

Belthazor turned around when Julian shimmered in. Raising an eyebrow he asked: "Didn't you say that you would never use your demonic powers?"  
Julian smiled weakly: "Well... what can I say...?"  
"So he is dead?" Belthazor asked, coming back to the point.  
Julian nodded: "Yeah... now there are only two Sorix left, but they will manage that on their own."  
The source was looking at the witch with sorrow. He wished he had been able to do more. "I'm sorry," he said.  
"For what?" Julian asked. "It wasn't your fault that Zankou imprisoned me and used me as guinea pig for his crazy experiments... you were the one who saved me... at least I've gained some active powers." He smiled weakly. But it was a sad smile, a desperate one.  
"But I sent you to kill him, the only one who could have been able to give you your old life back."  
"But we saved the two Chrises," Julian remarked, "they are more important than I could ever be."  
"Anyway, I'm sorry," Belthazor said again.  
Julian knew that he really meant it. It was really crazy... Belthazor, the source of all evil with remains of a good soul, and a witch with unnatural demonic powers... They were really a crazy couple. That was what bound them together...  
"Thanks," he said. And Belthazor nodded.

°°°°°°°°°°

"Hey! Do you think this is appropriate, you guys?"  
Victor and Cole, surprised, turned to look at the voice behind them, out of the library.  
There was Piper, her arms folded on her chest and an angry look in her eyes.  
Cole and Victor looked at each other, then at Wyatt... And the child chuckled, unaware of what was going on... Then, the two men turned to look at Piper again, with a naughty but embarrassed smile on their faces.  
The three were sitting on the floor, all the clothes creased, and dirty, and surrounded by old books and other objects, all building up a sort of magical castle.  
Piper continued, feigning her anger, amused at the startled looks of the two men: "Did you forget the wedding? You should have been ready by now!"  
"Are you all fine then? Is this all finished?" both asked at the same time.  
Piper smiled, and sighed deeply, rolling her eyes, as if she was tired of giving explanations of that type: "Of course we are, and everything is alright! It's my son's wedding, for God's sake! I said we'd have it, and we will!"  
The two men jumped from the floor, and took Wyatt in their arms, too happy to be described.  
"Yes!" Cole said, triumphantly.  
Victor went to hug his daughter. "Where are they, all the others?" he asked.  
Piper pushed them gently out of the library: "In their homes, the kids... In the manor the rest, having a good shower and preparing everything for the celebration after the ceremony... Come on, you are the only ones left!"  
Victor turned to her, confused: "But... how are we supposed to get out of here, without orbing?"  
Piper didn't answer this time, but Cole said, smirking: "Through the door, as everyone with a bit of manners should do..."  
Victor laughed softly, as Cole continued, speaking to Piper: "By the way, I think I need to check my e-mails first... if you don't mind. I'll be there right back."  
Piper didn't have time to answer, when Cole was already rushing to the computer.  
"Hey! You should wash your head, sweetie..." he said, turning back for a second, "you've got a little piece of demon on it!" And he winked before getting out of the room.

°°°°°°°°°°

It was a beautiful sunny day up on Earth, with no signs that any powerful being had ever threatened the balance of the world. People walked along the streets happily, and unaware of this big family that was now celebrating a wedding, but who had been convinced some hours before that they would have been celebrating a funeral instead; unaware of this family that was ready to give the lives of their members to save innocents...to save the world.  
However, all the fears, all the pains, all the sadness, were now thrown into oblivion. It was a beautiful sunny day... and they were the happiest people in the world, especially the bride and groom.  
Chris couldn't keep his eyes from Bianca, when Victor led her down the way between the seats of the guests. She was radiant in her long and white dress. She looked like an angel. Like the angel she was and the one she bore in her womb.  
When they reached him, Bianca was also beaming at Chris, seeing how his green eyes were brighter than ever. He was like a new-born man... The day before, she had believed he would give up. But it seems there's always hope for everyone... Little Hope. She smiled at herself, looking at her own womb.  
And there they were, at their spot! That beautiful garden surrounded by statues, all of them neatly clean. The green grass was well cut, and the flowers filled them with joy. That's the only thing they had asked for. They wanted to celebrate their wedding there, in their spot... where everything started, and with just a few guests: the family, of course, Darryl and his wife and son, Nicki, Steve and Tom with his parents. Victor and Piper were sitting in the front row, they were the witnesses to the marriage, and felt so happy to be the chosen ones!  
But now, it was their moment... The moment they had all waited for so long, the moment those two youngsters so much deserved.  
While the priest talked about the meaning of a marriage, about love and responsibility, the couple just smiled at each other lovingly, happily.  
"Bianca Anderson. Have you written any vows?"  
She nodded, smiling. Then she started: "Christopher Perry Halliwell... the day I saw you for the first time... That day in which everything in your life was dark, mine was about to be involved by light. By the light you were going to bring to me. The light that brights always in your eyes, and that makes me feel as if even the worst moments in our lives were good because you were there..." Chris listened to her, holding back his tears. "And now..." she smiled, her voice broken, "now that light is brighting stronger than ever. Because all the bad moments, all the pain, all the sorrow... is now in a far away past... You're a brave man who never gave up. I promise I'll be there always, with you, whatever happens... because now, my love, there's a whole future before us, filled with happiness, joy and above all... filled with Hope." Both of them smiled, their eyes glassy, as well as the other guests. "I love you Chris... In this life and in the other. Forever. Our fate is to be together, until death takes us apart."  
They held their hands, trembling as silence arose.  
Then, the priest, who was also moved by those words, even if he didn't get the whole sense of them, turned to Chris and said: "Christopher Halliwell... Do you have any vows to recite?"  
Chris nodded and had to clear his voice just before starting to speak, without taking his eyes away from Bianca's: "Bianca Anderson... my love... the only person that would, and has proved, that would have followed me even to death if necessary. After hearing your words I have to say... You're wrong in one thing... I didn't have any light in my life when I met you. When I really met you, that light you had ever seen, was gone, with all my hope and happiness. But when I thought it was all done, when I thought I would die of sorrow, you came... And you were the one that brought that light back to my life." His voice was broken, his eyes, bright-green, welling up in tears. Bianca was trembling at all the emotions released in that very moment. "Bianca... I love you... I love you above all things... And I promise... that I'll always be there... and will never give up," he smiled. "I wouldn't be able to... Because you support me. Thank you... Thank you for loving me that way..."  
Silence again... All the guests cried in silence, and joy.  
Darryl took his wife's hand and pressed it lovingly: "I do also love you that much, honey..." Sheila smiled.  
Cole took Phoebe's hands too. She turned to look at him, and saw his tears. 'He is so cute...' she thought, as she herself cried.  
Paige's eyes were glassy, and she sobbed unable to stop. She was sitting by Leo, who smiled also moved, looking at his own love. Piper... who had just turned to cross her eyes with him and send him a kiss.  
Wyatt giggled a little bit in Leo's arms too. He would remember that day in the future... somehow... At least that what Leo hoped.  
Tom smiled when he saw how his father embraced his mother. They seemed to be so happy now... after all the things they had had to live through... And as for Steve and Nicki, they were living their own story. They smiled at each other happily, naughtingly, as their legs touched each other behind the seats that hid them.  
There were three more people in the garden. They were dressed in white and smiled like angels. Or so the priest thought. They were three women, nothing else... But he felt as if some strange aura surrounded them. They were Penny, Patty and Prue. The family had summoned them before they had left the manor. And Prue, who had - as she had said - watched them from above all the time, swore countless times that she was really happy for Chris and Bianca and that she had nothing against her. And finally the ice between them had broken.  
Only one person was missing. That witch, the messenger... Julian. He had been invited, but he wouldn't appear.  
"Christopher Perry Halliwell...Will you love, comfort and honor Bianca Anderson, be faithful to her as long as you both shall live?"  
Chris smiled with brilliant eyes: "Yes...I do." Bianca had already answered that question.  
"Christopher and Bianca..., you have just stated your pledge of lifelong commitment to one another before God and in the presence of your families and loved ones. Those who God has joined together, let no on divorce. Now give the rings to one another."  
Piper gave the little box with the ring to Chris. And he took Bianca's hand trembling, and put the ring on her finger, as he said: "With this ring I thee wed."  
Victor did the same with Bianca, who smiled grateful to that sweet old man, and the process was repeated. As she put the ring on Chris's finger, she said: "With this ring I thee wed."  
The priest smiled, before saying: "Now... Christopher...you may kiss the bride."  
Bride and groom smiled at each other, they were beaming... Nobody was there but themselves, in their little world. They looked in each other's eyes, and kissed. Kissed one another lovingly, passionately.  
Then, after a long kiss, Chris took Bianca in his arms, and the guests stood up, and clapped their hands. They were married... finally.

°°°°°°°°°°

"Thanks..." said Belthazor, smiling at Julian. The witch nodded. He had done another favour to that demon. He had put cameras in the garden, so that he was able to be present in the wedding. Belthazor had seen the whole ceremony via internet.  
"I'm sorry you didn't stay in the wedding," said Belthazor, looking in Julian's eyes.  
He shrugged. "That wasn't my place.  
Some minutes before, Belthazor had received an e-mail.  
_"I wish you could come to the wedding. You saved it. You made Chris happy... and he won't ever know. But I just want to say thanks... And take care, man. Cole."  
_Now, the computer at the magic school was beeping in the darkness.  
_"I will, brother."_

* * *

_(Chapter 11 written by Belén and Chrissy.W.x)_

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* * *

__Well... so much for Part 4. "A Charmed Story - Part Five" will start next friday - YES next firday! So stay tuned!_**


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